Aspects on the actual practice of surgical management of urinary incontinence in Norway and Finland.

Objective: To elucidate aspects of the actual practice of surgical management of urinary incontinence in Norway and Finland.

Method: A questionnaire about preoperative diagnostic procedures, type of surgery, follow-up procedure and number of operations per center and per surgeon per year (1995) was sent to all departments of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Norway and Finland.

Result: Thirty-one (86%) of the Norwegian and 26 (90%) of the Finnish departments returned the questionnaire. More than 90% of the departments performed preoperative urodynamic evaluation. Burch colposuspension was used by more than 90% of the departments in the two countries. Generally the number of procedures per center and per department was low. Twenty-nine and 12% of the departments respectively did not perform any follow-up after surgery. Only 16% of the Norwegian and 23% of the Finnish centers had controlled results of surgery.

Conclusion: There seems to be a need for criteria of good clinical practice or a reference program for all steps of surgical management of stress incontinence in order to stimulate the process of quality development of this treatment.