Airway pressure release ventilation (APRV) versus pressure support ventilation (PSV)-A prospective intervention trial comparing haemodynamic parameters in intensive care patients.

Background And Aim: Assisted mechanical ventilation may alter the pressure profile in the thorax compared to normal breathing, which can affect the blood flow to and from the heart. Studies suggest that in patients with severe lung disease, airway pressure release ventilation (APRV) may be haemodynamically beneficial compared to other ventilator settings. The primary aim of this study was to investigate if APRV affects cardiac index in intubated intensive care patients without severe lung disease when compared to pressure support ventilation (PSV).

Five-year results of a randomized trial comparing retropubic and transobturator midurethral slings for stress incontinence.

Background: Midurethral slings have become the most preferred surgical treatment for female urinary incontinence.

Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety of two midurethral sling procedures with a different technique of sling insertion 5 yr after intervention.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Multicenter randomized clinical trial conducted in seven public hospitals in Finland including primary cases of stress urinary incontinence.

Prevalence of urinary urgency symptoms decreases by mid-urethral sling procedures for treatment of stress incontinence.

Introduction And Hypothesis: Conflicting opinions on the effect of incontinence surgery on the prevalence of postoperative urgency symptoms exists. Our aim was to evaluate the prevalence of urgency symptoms preoperatively and during 3-year of follow-up in women undergoing mid-urethral sling procedures for stress incontinence.

Methods: Two hundred and sixty-seven women were randomly assigned to a retropubic or a transobturator operation.

Dynamic MRI confirms support of the mid-urethra by TVT and TVT-O surgery for stress incontinence.

Objective: To study changes in mid-urethral function with dynamic MRI in stress urinary incontinent women undergoing either tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) or TVT-obturator sling operations.

Design: Prospective clinical study.

Setting: University hospital.

A randomized trial comparing tension-free vaginal tape with tension-free vaginal tape-obturator: 36-month results.

Introduction And Hypothesis: This is a randomized multicenter study comparing two mid-urethra tape procedures, the tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) with the tension-free vaginal tape-obturator (TVT-O) in terms of cure rate and complication rate.

Methods: Seven Finnish hospitals participated. Power calculations required 130 women in each group to detect a 10% difference in cure rate.

Updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the comparative data on colposuspensions, pubovaginal slings, and midurethral tapes in the surgical treatment of female stress urinary incontinence.

Context: Burch colposuspension, pubovaginal sling, and midurethral retropubic tape (RT) and transobturator tape (TOT) have been the most popular surgical treatments for female stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been published comparing the different techniques, with conflicting results.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy, complication, and reoperation rates of midurethral tapes compared with other surgical treatments for female SUI.

Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of the behavior of the mid-urethra in healthy and stress incontinent women.

Objectives: Support of the mid-urethra is thought to be an essential element of urinary continence in the female. Our aim was to image the behavior of the mid-urethra in healthy volunteers and in stress urinary incontinence (SUI) patients by dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Design: Prospective study.

The use of hair as an indicator of occupational 14C contamination.

This paper presents a study in which the specific activity of (14)C in hair has been investigated as an easily determined bio-indicator of the integrated (14)C exposure (over several months). The study includes 28 Swedish workers handling (14)C-labelled compounds, or working in a (14)C-enriched environment. Hair samples from personnel at a Swedish nuclear power plant showed very low levels of (14)C contamination, if any.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of solifenacin flexible dosing in patients with overactive bladder symptoms in four Nordic countries.

Objective: The purpose of the present analysis was to analyze and compare the cost-effectiveness of solifenacin flexible dosing (5-10 mg) with tolterodine 4 mg sustained release (SR) or placebo (assumed to be comparable to no treatment) for patients with overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms.

Design: A decision-analytic model was constructed.

Methods: Costs and effects were evaluated for the three treatment options in a one-year timeframe.

A randomized trial comparing TVT with TVT-O: 12-month results.

The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to compare the cure rate and the rate of complications of the tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) with those of the tension free vaginal tape obturator (TVT-O) procedure after one year of follow-up. The study was powered to show a ten per cent difference in cure rate and/or rate of complications. Of the initially treated 267 women 134 in the TVT group and 131 in the TVT-O group were evaluated.

Retropubic compared with transobturator tape placement in treatment of urinary incontinence: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To compare the intraoperative and immediate postoperative performance of the retropubic tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure with that of the transobturator tension-free vaginal tape (TVT-O) procedure as primary treatment for female urinary stress incontinence.

Methods: Randomized multicenter comparative trial including four university hospitals and three central hospitals in Finland. Assessment preoperatively and 2 months postoperatively included a cough stress test and the following condition-specific quality of life questionnaires: the Urinary Incontinence Severity Score (UISS), the Detrusor Instability Score, the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-Short Form, the Urogenital Distress Inventory-Short Form, and a visual analog scale (VAS).

Long-term results of the tension-free vaginal tape operation in an unselected group of 129 stress incontinent women.

Background: This study was undertaken to examine the long-term effects and effectiveness of the tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure in an unselected group of women.

Method: One hundred and twenty-nine stress urinary incontinent women (including primary, recurrent, mixed, and low pressure urethra cases) were studied prospectively and examined according to a strict protocol at a mean time of 6 years after their TVT operation. Cough and pad tests were used for objective evaluation, whereas visual analog scale and patients' verbal estimation were applied for subjective evaluation.

Seven-year follow-up of the tension-free vaginal tape procedure for treatment of urinary incontinence.

Objective: To evaluate the long-term cure rates and late complication rates after treatment of female urinary stress incontinence with the minimally invasive tension-free vaginal tape operation.

Methods: Prospective observational, 3-center cohort study originally of 90 women requiring surgical treatment for primary urinary stress incontinence. Assessment variables included a 24-hour pad weighing test, a stress test, visual analog scale for assessing the degree of bother, and a questionnaire assessing the subjective perception of the women on their continence status.

Latest advances in TVT tension-free support for urinary incontinence.

The Tension-free Vaginal Tape (TVT) procedure is the first of a new generation of minimally invasive operations for treatment of female urinary stress incontinence. A new theory of the cause of stress incontinence, the "Mid-urethra Theory," was the basis for development of the TVT operation. Systematic, prospective clinical trials have proved the TVT procedure is effective and safe in curing stress incontinence.

Tension-free vaginal tape procedure and laparoscopic colposuspension in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.

Purpose Of Review: Within the last decade we have seen substantial development in the surgical techniques used to treat female stress urinary incontinence. The laparoscopic approach became available and even less invasive methods like the tension-free vaginal tape procedure were introduced.

Recent Findings: These procedures offer quicker recovery and faster return to normal activities after surgery compared with the older procedures.

Tension-free vaginal tape procedure: an effective minimally invasive operation for the treatment of recurrent stress urinary incontinence?

The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) surgery in women with recurrent stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Fifty-one women with recurrent SUI were treated with TVT and followed prospectively for a minimum of 2 years according to a protocol. Twenty percent of the women had already undergone two previous continence procedures, whereas 80% had undergone only one.

A nationwide analysis of complications associated with the tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure.

Background: To evaluate the therapy-associated morbidity of all patients who underwent a TVT operation in Finland by the end of the year 1999.

Methods: Questionnaires on the number of operations and on the number of different complications were sent to 38 hospitals where TVT operations had been independently performed after an obligatory TVT training period. The primary TVT training center and a hospital, which did not use the standard TVT equipment, were excluded.