Impact of Tunneling During Minimally Invasive Sacrocolpopexy

Pelvic organ prolapse represents a common female pelvic floor disorder that increases with age and has a serious impact on quality of life. It is estimated that 30% of women aged 50-89 years will seek consultation for pelvic floor disorders. The purpose of any surgical repair of pelvic organ prolapse is to restore pelvic anatomy, preserving urinary, intestinal, and sexual function, with the lowest rate of recurrences and complications.

In the history of surgical repair for pelvic organ prolapse vaginal or abdominal approach has been performed. In spite of decreased morbidity and shorter hospitalisation advantage with vaginal procedures, they have consistently lower long-term success rates compared to abdominal sacrocolpopexy. In contrast, the abdominal approach is considered the gold standard for surgical correction of vaginal vault prolapse, with reported long-term efficacy rates. However, the associated morbidity of open laparotomy has made this procedure less favourable. In an effort to overcome these drawbacks, a minimally invasive laparoscopic approach has been adopted. However, the rigidity of the laparoscopic instrumentation makes intracorporeal suturing and dissection in the narrow pelvis challenging. Robot-assisted technology, with its stereoscopic vision and the use of instruments which easily moved by wrist movement, offers an ergonomic platform that simplifies complex laparoscopic tasks and has been widely adopted by pelvic surgeons.

Most complications following sacrocolpopexy can occur with either an open or a minimally invasive approach, typically at similar rates. Bladder injury, postoperative voiding dysfunction and lower urinary tract symptoms may occur. Lower urinary tract symptoms may develop postoperatively for reason that are still not clearly understood. De nova lower urinary tract symptoms may appear after laparoscopic or robot-assisted sacrocolpopexy with a range from 0% to 27%. As with urinary system complication, bowel complications (bowel injury, bowel dysfunction) may occur intraoperatively and postoperatively. Constipation is the mostly reported with a range from 0% to 19%. Retroperitonealization of the mesh used in laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy or robot-assisted sacrocolpopexy is thought to reduce the risk of bowel injury, although some authors have noted a lack of bowel injuries when the mesh was left exposed to the peritoneum.

Inclusion criteria

• Subject is female
• Subject is at least 18 years of age
• Subject is who can English speaking and reading
• Subject must have documented diagnosis of apical vaginal prolapse with leading edge of pelvic organ prolapse at or beyond the hymen. At or beyond the hymen is defined as Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification System (POP-Q) scores of C ≥ -1/2 total vaginal length (TVL)
• Subject reports a bothersome bulge they can see or feel per Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire - Short Form 20 (PFDI-20), question 3, response of 2 or higher (i.e., responses of "somewhat", "moderately", or "quite a bit")
• Subject or subject's legally authorized representative is willing to provide written informed consent
• Subject is willing and able to comply with the follow-up regimen

Exclusion criteria

• Subject is pregnant or intends to become pregnant during the study
• Subject has an active or chronic systemic infection including any gynecologic infection, untreated urinary tract infection (UTI) or tissue necrosis
• Subject has history of pelvic organ cancer (e.g. uterine, ovarian, bladder, or cervical)
• Subject has had prior or is currently undergoing radiation, laser therapy, or chemotherapy in the pelvic area
• Subject has taken systemic steroids (within the last month), or immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory treatment (within the last 3 months)
• Subject has systemic connective tissue disease (e.g. scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Marfan's syndrome, Ehlers Danlos, collagenosis, polymyositis or polymyalgia rheumatica)
• Subject has uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (DM)
• Subject has a known neurologic or medical condition affecting bladder function (e.g., multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or stroke with residual neurologic deficit)
• Subject is seeking obliterative vaginal surgery as treatment for pelvic organ prolapse (colpocleisis)
• Subject is currently participating in or plans to participate in another device or drug study during this study
• Subject has a known sensitivity to polypropylene
• Subject has had previous prolapse repair with mesh (abdominal or vaginal)
• Subject is planning to undergo a concomitant vaginal repair with use of mesh