The Change in Vaginal Axis on MRI After Uterus Preserving Laparoscopic Lateral Mesh Suspension

From the images obtained in the sagittal plane, the vagina, which will be observed as a high signal intensity linear structure in T2A images, and the levator plate extending as a flow-signal intensity flat structure in T1A images, will be evaluated.

The angles between the pubococcygeal line and lower vaginal segment (angle A), between the levator plate and the pubococcygeal (angle B) and between lower and upper vaginal segments (angle C) will be measured.

The distance between the posterior vaginal fornix and the midpoint of the anterior side of the 2nd vertebra will be measured in the mid-sagittal plane (PF-S2). The distance between the right spina ischiadica and right vaginal fornix (RSI-RF), and, the distance between the left spina ischiadica and left vaginal fornix (LSI-LF) will be measured on T2A images acquired in the axial plane.

Michigan Incontinence Severity Index (M-ISI) scale will be used to assess subjective outcome including urge symptoms. This scale has ten items, consisting of a total M-ISI domain (the sum of items 1-8) and a distinct Bother domain (the sum of items 9 and 10). The total M-ISI score consists of three subdomains (items 1-3 for stress urinary incontinence [SUI], items 4-6 for urge urinary incontinence [UUI], and items 7 and 8 for Pad usage [PU]. The responses for each item range from 0 to 4 on a Likert-type scale, with higher values representing greater symptoms and greater bother. Total domain and subdomain scores are obtained by simply adding the respective answers. The minimally important difference has been determined for the following domains/subdomains: total M-ISI (4 points), SUI (2 points), UUI (2 points), and PU (1 point).

The POP-SS consists of seven items, each with a 5-point Likert response set (0 = never, 1 = occasionally, 2 = sometimes, 3 = most of the time and 4 = all of the time). A total score (range 0-28) is calculated by summing the seven individual symptom responses to derive the POP-SS score. In addition, women indicate which one of the seven symptoms causes them most bother.

The FSFI evaluates sexual functioning in women and comprises of 19 questions with different answer choice scales referring the sexual life in the previous 4 weeks. The answer choices in the FSFI carry a number of points and are summed to obtain six domain scores and an overall score. For the latter, there is a threshold at 26.55 which means tFhat all values below are classed as indicating female sexual dysfunction (FSD). The domain scores are obtained as the sum of points attributed to questions in that domain multiplied by the domain factor.