Mid-urethral slings shown to have durable success

Jason Kim, MD and his associates at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle just finished a study examining the durability of the SPARC mid-urethral sling inserted to reduce the symptoms of urge and mixed incontinence in 79 patients. They defined success as one or fewer episodes of incontinence per week or a 70% improvement in symptoms as reported by the patient. With this definition, there was 87.5% success at 13 months and 81% success at 68 months. These are pretty good rates, and it is important to note that the success remains good over 5 years, and doesn’t decline as the person goes about their normal activities. If success dropped off over time, that would show that the device didn’t hold up; but it does seem to hold up well.