Artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) is commonly used in France in female patients with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) due to intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD). However, female AUS has never been assessed using validated questionnaires so far.  The aim of the present  study was to assess the functional outcomes of robotic artificial urinary sphincter implantation using validated questionnaires

The data of all female patients undergoing a robotic AUS implantation at a single academic center between 2014 and 2019 were collected prospectively. Preoperativley, all patients underwent urodynamics and filled out an Urinary Symptoms Profile (USP) questionnaire (SUI subscore /9; overactive bladder subscore /21 ; voiding symptoms subscore /9), a ICIQ-SF questionnaire and a Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGII). The same questionnaires were filled out at 3 months postoperatively. The impact of AUS implantation on patients’ quality of life was assessed using the question 5 of the ICIQ-SF (ICIQ-qol; /10).

Over the study period, 57 robotic female AUS implantations were performed by two surgeons. Eight patients had neurogenic SUI (14%). The median patients’ age was 66 years and 84.2% had a history of previous SUI surgery.  The median cuff size was 75 mm. There were ten intraoperative complications (5 bladder neck injuries and 5 vaginal injuries ; 17.5%) and 16 postoperative complications (28.1%) all Clavien grades 1 or 2 except three Clavien 3B: two early vaginal erosion with AUS explantation and one suspicion of AUS infection with surgical exploration (major complications rate: 5.3%). The median length of stay was 3 days. All patient-reported outcomes were significantly improved at 3 months. The USP SUI subscore decreased from 7.4/9 preoperatively to 0.7/9 at 3 months (p<0.0001), the USP OAB subscore dwindled from 12.6 to 5.2 (p<0.0001) and the ICIQ-SF from 16.3 to 3.1 (p<0.0001). The AUS implantation improved patients’ quality of life with the ICIQ-qol decreasing from 8.4 preoperatively to 1.3 at 3 months (p<0.0001). The 3-month PGII was 1/7 (very much improved) in 41 patients (74.5%), 2/7 (improved) in 5 patients (9.1%), 3/7 in four patients (7.3%) and 4/7 (unchanged) in five patients (9.1%)

This study is the first to report patient-reported outcomes for Female artificial urinary sphincter. According to the validated questionnaires used herein, AUS may improve urinary incontinence and lower urinary tract symptoms which result in improvement of patients' quality of life

Robot-assisted AUS implantation in female patients has a low morbidity and improves the patients-reported outcomes and quality of life of female patients with SUI due to ISD.