Abstract:


Background and objectives: An obstetric fistula is an abnormal opening between a women’s vagina and bladder and/or rectum, through which her urine and/or feces continually leak. This abnormal opening is usually the result of an injury incurred during delivery, most frequently from prolonged or obstructed labor. Residual incontinence is one of the most common complication among patient at Bugando Medical Center who undergoes obstetric fistula repair. Aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of residual incontinence after fistula repair and associated factors among women undergoing obstetric fistula repair at Bugando Medical Center.

Method: This is three years retrospective descriptive study, involved all women who had fistula repair from June 2017 to June 2019 with known data recorded at Gynecology and Obstetrics department at BMC during process of data collection. Data were collected by passing through files of all women underwent obstetric fistula repair at obstetrics and gynecology department having well documented and well-kept information. Then data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.

Results: The results of conducted research showed among of 210 women participants in study majority of them were out of Mwanza city, majority of participants their HIV status was unknown, and it tried to show that majority of people who got residual incontinence was mostly due to number of attempts they had, status of vaginal scarring, those who underwent vaginoplasty during repair procedure, also it showed greater relationship between residual incontinence and urethral involvement, while it showed no relationship exist between age and outcome of repair also no relationship existed between type of fistula prior repair and likeliness of outcome after repair.

Conclusion: The factors presented in this study acted as indicators for women who are more likely to develop residual urinary incontinence following obstetric fistula repair despite of successful closure of the obstetric fistula. In such a case further more research is required to be done to discern how best to manage women with these injuries so as to improve more the outcome of the procedure conducted in repair process.