How Women Perceive Severity of Complications after Pelvic Floor Repair?

Background: The Clavien-Dindo classification, used to describe postoperative complications, does not take into account patient perception of severity. Our main objective was to assess women’s perception of postoperative pelvic floor repair complications and compare it to the classification of Clavien-Dindo. Methods: Women and surgeons participating in the VIGI-MESH registry concerning pelvic floor repair surgery were invited to quote their perception of complication severity through a survey based on 30 clinical vignettes. For each vignette, four grades of severity were proposed: “not serious”, “a little serious”, “serious”, “very serious”. Results: Among the 1146 registered women, we received 529 responses (46.2%) and 70 of the 141 surgeons (49.6%) returned a completed questionnaire. A total of 25 of the 30 vignettes were considered classifiable according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. The women’s classification was concordant with Clavien-Dindo for 52.0% (13/25) of the classifiable vignettes. The women’s and surgeons’ responses were discordant for 20 of the 30 clinical vignettes (66.7%). Loss of autonomy (self-catheterization, long-term medication use) or occurrence of sequelae (organ damage or severe persistent pain) were perceived by women as more serious than Clavien-Dindo classification or than surgeons’ perceptions. Conclusions: Women’s perception of pelvic floor repair surgery seems different from the Clavien-Dindo classification. Lack of repair and long-term disability seem to be two major factors in favor of perception of the surgical complication as serious.