Procedure may prevent SUI after prolapse surgery

In women who undergo surgery to correct pelvic organ prolapse, adding a bladder-supporting Burch colposuspension to the operation helps to prevent stress incontinence after the surgery, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2006; 354:1557-66).

In the multicenter, National Institutes of Health-funded study, 157 women who were scheduled for sacrocolpopexy were randomly selected to receive the Burch procedure and 165 women served as controls.

“We found that without the Burch procedure, one in every four women developed some stress incontinence that they considered bothersome. We were able to reduce this to one in every 20 women by adding the four stitches of the Burch procedure,” said principal investigator Linda Brubaker, MD, of Loyola University Health System, Maywood, IL.

The frequency of urge incontinence between the Burch group and the control group was not significantly different.