Urinary Incontinence
It is estimated that urinary incontinence affects about 13 million American women every year. Women who are affected often experience accidents of urinary leakage when they laugh, cough, sneeze, or in more severe cases when they walk. Despite their impact on the affected individual's quality of life, most of these conditions are often untreated. Affected women are often too embarrassed to discuss their condition or they consider the condition a normal process of aging. Many fear the surgery involved in repairing some of these conditions.
Traditional methods of surgery such as the Burch Retropubic Urethropexy or the Marshall Marchetti Krantz (MMK) procedures usually involve lengthy surgery time, large abdominal scar, significant blood loss, and a prolonged recovery period. With the advance of new surgical equipments and microsurgical techniques, this procedure is now performed in about fifteen minutes with minimal scarring and pain.
Typically one small incision is made in the vagina below the urethra and two smaller incisions are made in the inner leg groin area. A polypropylene tape is passed through these incisions to form a sling under the urethra. The procedure takes about 15 minutes to perform under light general, regional or local anesthesia. The patient is discharged home after a brief recovery period on the same day of her surgery. Traditional methods require hospital stay of several days. Return to work time is 1 to 2 weeks rather than the traditional 6 weeks. And if done properly, this procedure have a very high success rate.