Management of pelvic organ prolapse in French-speaking Belgium: the EPILAPSUS study

Management of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) may be conducted by abdominal (laparotomy or laparoscopy) or vaginal approach, with or without mesh repair, mainly depending on the surgeon’s expertise. The aim of this study was to determine the trends in surgical management of POP in French-speaking Belgium. The GGOLFB Gynecologic surgery working group initiated a registry of the patients surgically treated for POP from eight centers in French-speaking Belgium. In this prospective multicentric study, conducted between June 2010 and January 2013, we analyzed the clinical and surgical data, the postoperative results at 4 months, the intra and postoperative complications, and reoperation rates. A total of 394 patients were registered in the database. Surgical POP repair was performed vaginally in 83.5 % of the patients, with prosthetic material in 70.2 % of the cases. In case of abdominal procedure, surgery was mainly (93.5 %) performed by laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy. The most common intraoperative complications were severe bleeding (2.3 %), bladder (2 %), and bowel (0.2 %) injuries. At 4 months, the total reoperation rate was 11.3 %. The anatomical success rate (POP-Q < 2) was 87.5 % with 2.1 % of reoperation for recurrence. Mesh exposure was observed in 9.8 % of the cases. Surgery for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) was reported in 5.1 % of the patients. The analysis of the current urogynecological practice in French-speaking Belgium shows that vaginal mesh repair is the preferential approach used for management of POP in the participating centers. The creation of a national database will help to evaluate the global trends in prolapse surgery and the potential impact of the FDA notification in the management of POP in Belgium.