The use of slings in the treatment of female urinary incontinence was pioneered in the late nineties. The new invention came on the back foot of a legacy type of procedure and for 30 years prior to that, that was the Burch colposuspension. The new procedure though called the tension free vaginal tape, came with all the bells and whistles to make it one of the most popular, successful and most studied operation in the recent history.  That was clearly expressed in the AUGS, IUGA and the FDA statements over the past three years confirming that the “sling” procedure for female urinary incontinence is “one of a kind”.

Many attempts have been commissioned to improve or replicate such a successful surgery. Starting with the trans-obtorator slings invented by De Leval in 2004 and ending with the single incision slings, the subject of out discussion here. The aim of the new improvements, if we are allowed to call them that, is to reduce complications and surgical time while maintaining the same success rate.

With the single incisions slings the studies appears to not support their claims to be the up and coming invention to replace the gold standard, the Tension free vaginal slings.  In fact, far from it. In this presentation we will be reviewing the up to date evidence behind the single incision slings available in the market today. We will compare the new “mini” slings to the conventional ones that have been in practice for almost 17 years and over 1million women around the world had them to treat their urinary incontinence. The conclusions drawn from our discussion will help us serve our patients optimally when prescribing one incontinence procedure over another.