Background: We aimed to investigate the outcomes of anterior and
posterior approaches in patients who underwent sacrospinous ligament fixation for
apical prolapse. Methods: The study included hysterectomized women with
grade 2 apical prolapse according to the Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Quantification (POP-Q) system, who presented to our center between 2019 and 2022.
Out of the 48 patients included in the study, 24 underwent posterior bilateral
sacrospinous ligament fixation (PB-SSLF), while the other 24 underwent anterior
bilateral sacrospinous ligament fixation (AB-SSLF). Postoperative anatomical
recurrence of anterior vaginal wall prolapse, according to the POP-Q system, was
defined as follows: cystocele stage II (Aa or Ba –1 cm),
recurrent apical prolapse stage II (C –1 cm), and posterior
vaginal wall prolapse stage II (Ap or Bp –1 cm). Postoperative
follow-up visits were scheduled routinely at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the
operation, and then annually. Complications were recorded according to the
Clavien-Dindo classification. Rates in the groups were compared using the
Chi-square test. Independent two-group comparisons of numerical variables were
performed using the Student t-test when the normal distribution
assumption was met and the Mann-Whitney U test when the assumption was not met.
The significance level (alpha) was set at p 0.05. Results:
No significant difference was observed in terms of postoperative anterior
recurrence between the groups that underwent bilateral anterior and posterior
SSLF (16.7% each). Regarding the operation durations, the group that underwent
AB-SSLF had longer operation times compared to the group that underwent PB-SSLF
(80 minutes and 42.5 minutes, respectively). A higher incidence of postoperative
urinary dysfunction was observed in patients who underwent anterior bilateral
sacrospinous ligament fixation (p = 0.012). No grade 3b or higher
complications were observed according to the Clavien-Dindo classification.
Conclusions: AB-SSLF is an effective method in the surgical treatment of
apical and anterior pelvic prolapse. However, the anterior compartment failure
rate is still a limitation. Further research is required to investigate its
long-term efficacy.