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In the years 1995 to 2001, 970 women with urinary incontinence underwent surgery with tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Falun Hospital. In 2002 the charts of all these women were reviewed and a questionnaire was sent in 2004. 760 women (78,4%) answered the questions. The mean time since surgery was 5.7 years. The mean age at surgery was 58.7 years. Of all patients, 580 had pure stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and 112 had mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) prior to surgery. Of the women with SUI, 85 % were subjectively and persistently cured. Of the women with MUI, 60 % were subjectively cured up to 3 years after the TVT operation.  However this figure declined to 30 % among women operated on 6-8 years previously. The increasing incontinence was due to urgency symptoms and urge urinary incontinence (UUI).The IIQ-7 and UDI-6 questionnaires were used for measuring quality of life. The women showed dramatic improvement after TVT surgery irrespective of time since surgery. Women with chronic diseases also had relative improvement in QOL scores. Sixty-seven of the women with pure SUI preoperatively (14.5%) reported persistent de novo urgency symptoms postoperatively and 51 of the women also had UUI. Old age, history of cesarean section, increasing parity and BMI were risk factors for developing de novo urgency after TVT procedure. Among women ≥ 75 years 55.7% reported cure after TVT, compared to 79.7% of women < 60 years. The overall cure rate in the very overweight women (BMI ≥ 35) was 52.1%, compared to 81.2% in women of normal weight (BMI < 25).

Conclusions. The subjective results after TVT surgery for SUI are very good even after 8 years. Short-term effect of TVT on MUI is acceptable, but declines after 3 years. Improvements in measures of quality of life after TVT surgery are dramatic and persistent in both the SUI and MUI groups. Women who developed de novo urgency symptoms after TVT surgery reported poorer quality of life. The TVT procedure is simple and safe, but the results in the oldest or most overweight women are not as good as in the younger or normal weight women.