Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) significantly impacts a woman’s quality of life causing physical, social, psychological, occupational, domestic and/or sexual limitations and affects mental well-being.

Successful outcome definitions of prolapse surgery range from purely anatomic endpoints to subjective patient reported outcomes to the need for subsequent treatment for complications and retreatment for recurrent POP. This makes comparison of surgical outcomes difficult as there are no universally accepted outcome measures to define surgical success, graded success, or failure. The vaginal bulge symptom correlates well with patient satisfaction after POP surgery while anatomic outcomes alone do not. The evaluation of anatomic outcomes in clinical practice may be of less importance than in research protocols.

According to the International Consultation of Incontinence (ICI), the most useful assessments of the presence, severity and impact of pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) on patients are psychometrically validated PROs. The International Urogynecological Consultation (IUC) on POP, reviewed the literature and made recommendations on the definition of success in the surgical treatment of POP. In this IUGA session, the IUC recommendations will be commented.

The views expressed in this Society Session are those of the speakers and not necessarily those of the International Continence Society.