Outcome measure for stress urinary incontinence treatment (OMIT): Results of two society of urodynamics and female Urology (SUFU) surveys

Introduction: To reach some agreement on a minimum set of outcomes measures (OMs) for the post-operative evaluation of stress incontinent women, we applied the concept of "lower common denominator" to study which OM instruments are used amongst SUFU members. Methods: With SUFU approval, a short online, 11 items, emailbased survey was prepared to assess what OMs current SUFU members are using in daily practice. The first survey administered after the annual SUFU meeting targeted recent SUFU meeting attendees. The same survey was redistributed later on to include all SUFU members. Results: Each survey ran for a 10-day period. Response rate for the first survey was 50 (̃30%) and 106 (̃25%) for the second. Responders were geographically well distributed, had been in practice for 1-15 years (̃75%), performed 5-15 cases/month, and practiced in a university (56%) or group (30%) setting. Great consistency was noted between surveys for preferred questionnaires [UDI-6 (40-52%), UDI-6, and IIQ-7 (30-34%)], office tests [urinalysis and post-void residual (30-35%)], exam [Baden-Walker and/or POP-Q (38-55%), cough stress test (54-51%)], imaging (none), and urodynamics (none, unless complications). The most common "dislikes" in descending order were: 24 hr pad test, Q-tip test, bladder diary, long questionnaires, POP-Q. Conclusion: These two SUFU surveys did not explore what each physician thinks is the best OM but what members use regularly in their practices. Similar findings were noted in both surveys, supporting the concept that a minimum set of OM could be developed for reporting surgical outcomes of incontinence procedures in the future.