Advance Sling vs. Invance Sling -

As I continue to work on my incontinence, I am looking into alternative solutions to the problem at the end of my seasonal work (October - 11 month anniversary after surgery). My job involves heavy lifting and would not be able to do my work if I had a sling installed in the summer.

At four months out, I am down to 1 pad a night and 2-3 pads during the day - most of the leakage is from stress incontinence - getting up from chair or car seat, lifting. I am able to control it until I get to the bathroom - but unable to stop/start the flow on command - once it starts - the flood waters just go !

Have looked over the two styles of slings and wonder who has a better ratio of success ?

-the doctor at the recent lecture says he has a very high success rate 90% for his 1000+ patients ( he has been doing this operation since 1996 when the sling came out) - but when I search on the web for other studies - cornell and another site - stated only 55% success rate with 75% success rate ( including those with better control than before).

any of the sling guys have any feedback on this?
I am not jumping the gun - just doing research - have read some earlier topic postings here and wondering if anyone has changed their mind on the procedure over time.

-thanks
BRONSON

P.S. am aware of tallguy's coloplast sling postings - and found just now - drewboy's start of his journey - all the best -

Dear Bronson,

I am probably one of very few individuals that has had two different slings implanted. Prior to my first surgery, I had required 1-2 pads per day since my prostatectomy ten years ago.

Last July I consented to having an AdVance sling or AdVance type sling implanted into my body. Prior to surgery, my urologist told me this sling had been in usage for three years with an impressive 85% success rate. I was told that I was an excellent candidate for this surgery.

For reasons unknown to me, to my horror and without my consent, the surgeon switched slings on me, during surgery, and implanted a Virtue sling by Coloplast. From the first day, my incontinence increased from 1-2 pads per day pre-surgery to 4-5 pads per day. This was bad but pain was a MUCH bigger problem. The pain was continuous and absolutely intolerable.

My suffering continued non-stop until I was finally able to have the Virtue sling removed five months after being implanted. This required a 3 1/2 hours of major surgery by a specialist at The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.

Near the conclusion of this second surgery I was implanted with the AdVance sling that I had consented to five months earlier. It has been fantastic! I have not spilled one drop since it was implanted. The pain is diminishing daily I can cough, sneeze, blow my nose and do jumping jacks without hesitation or any leakage. For the first time in ten years I feel naturally dry.

I can not say at this time if my horrible experience was caused by the Virtue sling, by mistakes made my the surgeon or a combination of the aforementioned. I can say I had no pelvic pain or discomfort prior to my surgery last July.

You can read more about my sling ordeal if you look for bigxbadxjohn postings probably starting about August 2009.

I highly recommend doing a lot of research prior to committing to any surgical procedure. From my experience, a very favorable outcome is possible.

Best wishes,

John

Be careful about any "success" rates you hear about slings. Based on what I have read success mean different things to different people. Totallly dry is usually a very small % with most studies. One pad a day may be in  the definition of success of some studies. Or, they may just have the patient define their degree of  success with their outcome which may be one or two pads per day.

I had Virtue sling surgery six weeks ago. I improved from 4-5  pads per day to 2-3 pads per day..some days 1-2 pads. This is an improvement but would not be defined as "success" by most patients standards. See Tallguys journey with coloplast sling surgery on this forum to see my story. Another guy on the forum "rapids" had similar conditions to me. After learning of his success.  had the same surgery and used the same Dr. at NYU. He is basically dry. He recently did a post on Virtue sling.

I considered the InVance sling since that was primarily what my Uro was doing but decided against because of the bone anchoring and residual pain some people seem to experience. AMS literature positions AdVance for mild incontinence and InVance for moderate incontinence and AUS sphincter for sever incontinence.

Based on what I learned on this forum InVance appears to be outdated and most Drs have moved to AdVance. Virtue by Coloplast is so new there is very little information available and no clinical trials have yet been published. In theory it should provide a stronger fix. But, there is no data to support that yet.

 

no problem tallguy - thank you for caring and sharing -
hugs
BRONSON

Bronson,

I notice that the doc claimed greater than 5 year follow-up with the Advance sling. The product was launched in August 2006 (without any clinical study data). There are no studies that have 5 year data on this device. One of the inventors had published data with some patients gong back to around 2006, but the majority are more recent. It appears that the very positive initial results are not being maintained and more recent articles report lower cure and improve rates as well as more complications.

Best regards

Ben

tatt2man, have you had any discussions with your doctor concerning the AUS implant? That's another alternative I'd strongly suggest.

Wigs

tatt2man,

I am doing well and that is why I mentioned the AUS. Reading your signature, I wouldn't say that anyone changing clothes on a daily basis would be considered anything but a heavy leaker. Best of luck to you.

Wigs

P.S.
(As my son said after hiking the Appalachian Trail, "Dad, your trail name would be Robo-Cock.")