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 man agement of urinary incontinence in Norway and Finland. Method. A quest ionnaire about preoperative diagnostic procedures, type of surgery, fo llowup procedure and number of operations per center and per surgeon p er year (1995) was sent to all departments of Gynecology and Obstetric s in Norway and Finland. Results. Thirty-one (86%) of the Norwegian an d 26 (90%) of the Finnish departments returned the questionnaire. More than 90% of the departments performed preoperative urodynamic evaluat ion. Burch colposuspension was used by more than 90% of the department s in the two countries. Generally the number of procedures per center and per department was low. Twenty-nine and 12% of the departments res pectively did not perform any follow-up after surgery. Only 16% of the Norwegian and 23% of the Finnish centers had controlled results of su rgery. Conclusion. There seems to be a need for criteria of good clini cal practice or a reference program for all steps of surgical manageme nt of stress incontinence in order to stimulate the process of quality development of this treatment.