Introduction As our population ages, pelvic floor disorders are becoming more prevalent and increasingly important health and social issues. Approximately 63 million women will be 45 years old or older…

Introduction Uterine prolapse is a common disorder in women. It represents the third leading cause of hysterectomy for benign disease and is responsible for approximately 70,000 hysterectomies annually in the…

Introduction Anterior vaginal prolapse occurs commonly and may coexist with disorders of micturition. Mild anterior vaginal prolapse often occurs in parous women, but usually presents few problems. As the prolapse…

Introduction In 1938 Murless reported the use of morrhuate sodium for injection management of urinary incontinence. In the early 1990s, transurethral and periurethral injection of bovine collagen was introduced for…

Introduction Pelvic floor disorders (PFDs), including urinary incontinence (UI), pelvic organ prolapse (POP), and anorectal disorders, are prevalent conditions that have a significant negative impact on women’s quality of life….

Introduction to urodynamics The term urodynamics means observation of the changing function of the lower urinary tract (LUT) over time. Specifically, urodynamic studies are a number of interactive diagnostic tests…

Introduction The concept of using a patient’s own tissue as a “sling” to provide support under the urethra to treat urinary incontinence dates to the beginning of the twentieth century;…

Introduction Since 1949, when Marshall et al. first described retropubic urethrovesical suspension for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI), retropubic procedures have proved to be consistently curative. Although numerous…

Introduction Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is an involuntary loss of urine on effort, physical exertion, or with an increase in the intraabdominal pressure upon sneezing or coughing ( ). Pelvic…

Historical perspective The first endoscopic technique for evaluating the female urethra and bladder was described by Bozzini in 1805 and used candlelight reflected through a funnel in the urethra. Nineteenth-century…