Prevalence and surgical outcomes of stage 3 and 4 pelvic organs prolapse in Jimma university medical center, south west Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) affects about half of the women and affects their quality of life. The current study is, therefore, aimed at determining the prevalence and surgical outcomes of severe stage POP at Jimma University medical center from November 2016 to May 2018. METHOD: A Hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on all patients with stage 3 and 4 POP, who were admitted, and had surgery. Data were collected from the patient’s chart, and logbooks, which were filled up from entry till her discharge. A Simplified POPQ(S-POPQ) was used to stage the prolapse at admission, at discharge, and three months follow-ups. RESULTS: Among 92 patients who were analyzed, POP accounts for 10.6% of all gynecologic admissions, and 43.8% of all gynecologic surgeries. The mean age of patients is 46 (± 12) years, and nearly 34% of the patients had stage 3 and 66% had stage 4 POP. Based on the type of prolapse, 93.5% of patients had stage 3 and more anterior vaginal wall prolapse (AVWP) and apical prolapse, while 57.6% had stage 3 or more posterior vaginal wall prolapse. Out of 72 patients who had anterior colporrhaphy, 58.7% had anterior colporrhaphy with colposuspension. Out of 83 patients who had apical suspension, 48.2%, 39.8%, and 12% had uterosacral, sacrospinous, and Richardson respectively. Ninety-seven patients had stage 0 or 1 POP at discharge while 90% of 20 patients who returned for follow-up at three months had stage 0 or 1 POP. Eight patients had surgery-related complications; bladder injury, urinary retention, Hemorrhage during SSLF, and rectal injury. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse is high and the majority of patients presented with advanced-stage pelvic organ prolapse, with a long duration of symptoms and associated problems. The surgical techniques used have resulted in a high immediate success rate of 97% and 90% at discharge and three months follow up respectively. Therefore, awareness creation activities are important to facilitate an early presentation for treatment to improve the quality of life and the current surgical technique; native tissue vaginal repair (NTVR), being practiced in the setup has had better success.