Stamey needle suspension for stress urinary incontinence. A prospective study of 40 patients.

A series of 40 consecutive patients with proven stress urinary incontinence underwent Stamey endoscopic bladder neck suspension. There were 5 cases of detrusor instability and the results were poor in this group. Excluding these patients, 77% were cured and 12% reported significant improvement. There were 4 unpredictable failures; all but 1 occurred within 3 months of surgery and the fourth before 6 months. There were no late failures up to the mean follow-up period of 21 months (range 9-33 months; 35 cases greater than 12 months); 3 of the failures had the same procedure repeated but it was again unsuccessful. The Stamey procedure is quick, entails minimum high dependency nursing and has a short hospital stay (mean 7 days). As assessed in the medium term, it represents a useful addition to the surgical procedures available for the relief of stress urinary incontinence.