Currently, there is no consensus on the use of mesh in transvaginal surgical repairs for the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse. This review recapitulates and assesses the recent U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings about the use of surgical mesh in transvaginal pelvic organ prolapse repair and summarizes the responses of the national organizations that represent the health care providers most invested in treating patients with transvaginal surgical mesh. Mesh exposure or extrusion through the vaginal wall, true mesh erosion into viscera, and infection are the major complications that are currently used to define the safety of synthetic mesh use. Other potential adverse postsurgical outcomes that can affect quality of life, sexual function, and patient satisfaction include dyspareunia, "hispareunia" (ie, complaints of a sexual partner), prosthetic contraction or prominence, vaginal shortening, pelvic pain, urinary dysfunction, and failure of the repair. These outcomes are frequently attributed to mesh use, and can result in expense, frustration, and the need for further medical and surgical interventions for patients undergoing treatment for pelvic floor disorders. Information regarding the FDA's reports on the use of surgical mesh in pelvic organ prolapse repair should be made available to patients at the time of surgical planning and should be used as an adjunct in the process of obtaining informed consent.

In this review, we set out to address the clinically complex question of how patients with overactive bladder (OAB) syndrome and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) fare with respect to symptomatic improvement after surgical treatment of POP. Our objectives are to use the current literature to define appropriate patient expectations for improvement and cure and to look for factors predicting divergent outcomes, with the goal of offering realistic preoperative patient counseling. Secondary aims include highlighting areas of needed research, defining outcome measures, and examining theories regarding the relationship between OAB and POP. Relevant original papers and review articles were identified by conducting a literature search using PubMed and Medline. The cause of OAB symptoms and the relationship between vaginal wall prolapse and OAB remain unclear. However, POP repair seems to improve the symptoms of OAB syndrome in 30% to 80% of patients, with a small but significant percentage of patients (≤20%) developing de novo symptoms of OAB.