[Retrospective comparative study of three surgical procedures in the treatment of urinary stress incontinence in women. Apropos of 119 patients treated from 1985 to 1990].

From 1985 to 1990, 119 female patients underwent a cure for urinary incontinence on exertion according to a technique that varied according to the period and to the data of the literature. From 1985 to 1988, 42 patients were operated with the Goebbel-Stoeckel technique; from 1986 to 1988, 32 patients were operated with Stamey's procedure, and 47 patients with Gittes' procedure from 1988 to 1990. These three groups of patients with comparable ages, previous history and degree of urinary incontinence on exertion were analyzed by the same surgeon for functional results and morbidity, both in the immediate three months after surgery and in July, 1991, with an average distance in time of 29 months. The patients with no leakage of urine were regarded as healed, those presenting with occasional leakages on violent exertion but requiring no napkins were regarded as improved. All other patients were regarded as failures. The percentage of failure is similar for the three technical procedures when analyzing long-term results and according to our criteria, 66% of patients only are healed or improved. These figures are noticeably higher if surgery has been performed in a patient with normal preoperative closing pressure. The analysis of this series and comparison with series in the literature seem to allow outlining a therapeutic pattern for urinary incontinence on exertion, whether recurrent or not, with or without sphincter hypotonia.