Complications of sub-urethral sling procedures

Approximately one-third of the female population has been estimated to suffer from stress urinary incontinence. Surgical management of this disorder has been an area of ongoing innovation since the beginning of the 20th century. Better understanding of the underlying patomechanisms resulted in the invention of suburethral sling, that proved to be very effective in terms of the cure rates. The introduction of sling techniques also caused a considerable reduction of the rates of intra- and postoperative complications of incontinence treatment. Unfortunately, modern anti-incontinence surgery continues to be associated with a high risk of both, perioperative morbidity and longterm adverse outcomes, even with the recently introduced single-incision techniques. The article focuses on intraand postoperative complications of sling techniques in anti-incontinence surgery. Both, common and rare adverse outcomes are widely discussed

Assessment of efficacy and safety of medical treatment of non-viable first trimester pregnancy

Objectives: The aim of our study was to assess the efficacy and safety of medical treatment of non-viable first trimester pregnancy. Material and methods: We analyzed 50 cases of women diagnosed with non-viable first trimester pregnancy: missed abortion (79.6%) or anembryonic pregnancy (20.4%), who were admitted and treated at the First Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University of Warsaw, between June 2011 and February 2012. The diagnosis was made after two ultrasound examinations, performed at least one week apart. None of the patients manifested symptoms of imminent miscarriage. All women received medical treatment - misoprostol administered vaginally or, in cases of excessive bleeding in the course of the procedure, sublingually - according to our own scheme. The patients were informed that any moment they could decide to discontinue medical treatment and ask for surgery. Initially, 4 tablets containing misoprostol (800 mcg) were administered vaginally. A control ultrasound examination was performed 6 hours later. If expulsion of the gestational sac was completed, the patient was discharged. If the gestational sac was still present in the uterus, an additional dose of misoprostol was administered: 4 tablets vaginally or, if excessive bleeding occurred, 3 tablets (600 mcg) sublingually. Another ultrasound examination was performed after 6 hours from the second dose and the patient was discharged if the expulsion of the gestational sac was completed. If the procedure failed, it was repeated in the same manner the next day. D&C was performed in cases of excessive bleeding, failure of medical treatment after 48 hours, patient decision to discontinue medical treatment or suspected incomplete abortion after menstrual bleeding. For women who completed the medical treatment, control visits were scheduled 14 days after hospital discharge and after menstrual bleeding, if incomplete abortion was suspected. Results: D&C was performed in 12% of patients because of failure of medical treatment after 48 hours, excessive bleeding or incomplete abortion after menstrual bleeding. Additional 6% of women decided to discontinue medical treatment and demanded D&C before completing 48 hours of treatment. The mean dose of misoprostol administered until the expulsion of the gestational sac was 1.404 g (7.02 tablets). In 60% of cases the expulsion was completed before 12 hours from the beginning of the procedure. In multiparae, the time until expulsion did not exceed 6 hours more frequently than in nulliparae (50 vs. 24.14%,

Expression of Fucosyltransferase 4 (<i>FUT4</i>) mRNA Is Increased in Endometrium from Women with Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder defined as the presence of endometrial-like tissue (glands and stroma) outside the uterus. The etiopathogenesis of endometriosis is still poorly recognized. It is speculated that stage-specific embryonic antigen 1 (SSEA-1)-positive stem-like glandular epithelial cells may contribute to the development of the disease. The synthesis of SSEA-1 is mediated by fucosyltransferase 4 encoded by the FUT4 gene. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the specific expression of FUT4 mRNA in biopsies of the endometrium from women with and without endometriosis. FUT4 mRNA levels were examined in 49 women with laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis and 28 controls by means of quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The expression of FUT4 mRNA was significantly increased in the endometrium of patients with endometriosis when compared to the controls (p FUT4 mRNA in the endometrium was correlated with the severity of endometriosis (rs = 0.5579, p FUT4 mRNA expression when comparing endometriotic lesions from various locations. The discriminatory ability of FUT4 mRNA expression was evaluated by receiver-operating characteristics (ROC), which showed high statistical significance (AUC = 0.90, p FUT4 mRNA may serve as a specific marker for endometriosis

Demographic risk factors for mid-urethral sling failure. Do they really matter?

Age, obesity and vaginal deliveries (VD) are recognized risk factors for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). According to many authors, the abovementioned risk factors for incontinence also increase the risk of mid-urethral sling (MUS) failure. Our aim was to evaluate the objective and subjective effectiveness of retropubic MUS in 12 months observation, relative to the three potential risk factors of failure: obesity, age and VDs. A prospective observational study including 238 women who underwent retropubic MUS implantation was performed. Patients were divided into subgroups: obese vs non-obese, <65 vs ≥65 years old and no history of VD vs ≥1 VD. Follow-up took place between 6 and 12 months post-surgery. Cough test, 1-hour pad test, pelvic floor ultrasound examination, and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire 7 (IIQ-7) results were assessed pre- and post-operatively. Of the 238 patients, 208 (86.3%) completed a minimum follow-up period of 12 months. Significant improvement in the pad test was observed in all patients (83.2 ± 78.6 g vs 0.7 ± 3.3 g). Negative cough test results were obtained in over 94% of patients. Significant improvement in the IIQ7 results was observed in all patients (74.2 ± 17.7 vs 5.5 ± 13.4). No significant differences in all the analyzed parameters with regard to BMI, age and parity were observed. No combination of risk factors influenced the objective and subjective cure rates. Our study demonstrated that older age, obesity and history of VDs have no impact on objective and subjective sling effectiveness in a short term observation. There is no influence of combined demographic features on the failure risk

Endometriotic Peritoneal Fluid Stimulates Recruitment of CD4+CD25highFOXP3+ Treg Cells

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus. The disease is associated with disturbed local and systemic immunity. It has been reported that the proportion of CD4+CD25highFOXP3+ Treg cells may be significantly increased in the peritoneal fluid of patients with endometriosis. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate whether the proportions of Treg cells in the peritoneal cavity of patients with endometriosis are related to the chemotactic and stimulatory activity of the local peritoneal milieu. The peritoneal fluid was collected from 13 women with ovarian endometriosis and 12 control women without the disease. T cell populations were analyzed by flow cytometry, cytokines and chemokines were evaluated using the cytometric bead kit, and cell chemotaxis was studied by cell migration assay. We confirmed that the proportions of Treg cells are increased in the peritoneal fluid of women with endometriosis as compared to the control women. Endometriosis was also associated with elevated concentrations of IL-6, IL-10, and TGF-β1/2 as well as CCL20, CXCL8, CXCL9, and CXCL10. We did not reveal any changes in the proportion of peritoneal Th17 cells and concentrations of IL-17A. Peritoneal Treg cells positively correlated with concentrations of TGF-β, IL-10, and CCL20. Endometriotic peritoneal fluid stimulated chemotaxis of both CD4+ and Treg cells. This chemotactic activity positively correlated with concentrations of CCL20. CCL20 stimulated the migration of Treg cells, and the chemotactic activity of the endometriotic peritoneal fluid was inhibited by neutralizing anti-CCL20 antibodies. These results imply that increased proportions of the peritoneal Treg cells in women with endometriosis may result from attraction and activation by local chemokines and cytokines, especially CCL20 and TGF-β. Since Treg cells contribute to the immunopathogenesis of endometriosis, their chemotaxis and activation may be considered as a target for therapeutic intervention