Outcomes of Pregnancy Following Surgery for Stress Urinary Incontinence: A Systematic Review

Purpose: Although few data have been published on the safety of childbearing after surgery for stress urinary incontinence, a large proportion of physicians recommend that women wait to complete childbearing before pursuing surgical treatment for stress urinary incontinence. We systematically reviewed the available literature to examine the safety of pregnancy after stress urinary incontinence surgery, and to measure the effect of such pregnancy on continence outcomes. Materials and Methods: The review was conducted according to the recommendations of the MOOSE (Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) group. We performed a systematic review to identify articles published before January 2011 on pregnancy after incontinence surgery. Databases searched include PubMed (R), EMBASE (R) and the Cochrane Review. Our literature search identified 592 titles, of which 20 articles were ultimately included in the review. Results: Data were tabulated from case reports, case series and physician surveys. The final analysis in each category included 32, 19 and 67 patients, respectively. Urinary retention developed during pregnancy in 2 women, 1 of whom was treated with a sling takedown and the other with intermittent catheterization. Of these 2 women 1 also had an episode of pyelonephritis during pregnancy, possibly related to the intermittent catheterization. The incidence of postpartum stress urinary incontinence ranged from 5% to 18% after cesarean delivery and from 20% to 30% after vaginal delivery. Conclusions: Although the data on outcomes in the literature are limited and further studies need to be performed on the subject, the current data suggests that any increase in risks for pregnancy after surgery for stress incontinence may be small. A low risk of urinary retention during pregnancy may exist. Although some data suggest that cesarean deliveries may result in a lower rate of recurrent stress urinary incontinence than vaginal deliveries, a formal analysis could not be performed with the available data.