Infectious complications of promontofixation, a systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Introduction: Surgery for genitourinary prolapse may be complicated, with postoperative infections. While promontofixation is recommended and widely used, the impact of postoperative infections has received little study. We consequently decided to review the literature to identify risk factors for infection.

Material and method: We conducted a systematic review of the literature. PubMed, Medline and the Cochrane databases up until August 2019 were examined. The keywords were: "promontofixation", "colpopexy", "sacral colpopexy", "sacrocolpopexy". The primary outcome consisted in infectious complications. We also performed a meta-analysis using RevMan software.

Results: Fifty-two among 1624 articles were selected. Infectious complications following promontofixation are infrequent. While few factors have been definitively associated with the occurrence of postoperative infections, associated procedures such as rectopexia or hysterectomy increase the risk of the latter. However, type of approach does not seem to affect the rate of occurrence of infectious complications.

Conclusion: This review of the literature underscores a lack of descriptive, statistical and therapeutic data on post-promontofixation infections, which are certainly underestimated. On the other hand, it helps to identify the association of certain factors with the occurrence of postoperative infections.

Keywords: Colpopexy; Complication; Infection; Prolapse; Promontofixation.