ORIGINAL ARTICLE Risk factors for mesh erosion 3 months following vaginal reconstructive surgery using commercial kits vs. fashioned mesh-augmented vaginal repairs Peter S. Finamore & Karolynn T. Echols & Krystal Hunter & Howard B. Goldstein & Adam S. Holzberg & Babak Vakili Received: 29 April 2009 / Accepted: 29 August 2009 / Published online: 4 December 2009 # The International Urogynecological Association 2009 Abstract Introduction and hypothesis Our objective was to establish the overall graft erosion rate in a synthetic graft-augmented repair 3 months postoperatively. Methods A retrospective chart review was performed on a cohort of subjects who underwent mesh-augmented vaginal reconstructive surgery during an 18-month period. We defined graft erosion as exposure of any mesh upon visual inspection of the entire vagina at the 3-month postoperative visit. Statistical tests performed to evaluate proportional differences were the Pearson chi square and Fisher exact tests. Indepen- dent t test was performed to compare mean differences. Results A total of 124 grafts were implanted. The overall erosion rate was 11.3%. There was a significantly lower erosion rate when using “commercial kits” vs. our traditional repairs (1.4% [one out of 69] vs. 23.6% [13 out of 55]; p <0.001). Conclusions Our study demonstrates a significantly lower erosion rate when using a “commercial kit” to repair pelvic organ prolapse compared to our traditional synthetic graft- augmented repair. Keywords Erosion . Mesh . Prolapse . Vaginal reconstructive surgery Introduction Pelvic reconstructive surgery has been on the rise, primarily due to the rapidly expanding elderly population [1, 2]. In an attempt to minimize the morbidity of an abdominal procedure to repair prolapse while increasing the durability of traditional vaginal surgery, many pelvic surgeons have incorporated the use of synthetic graft material to augment their vaginal repairs [3–8]. Concerns over the potential complications such as erosion of the graft have made these procedures controversial. Mesh erosion and its associated risk factors have been widely studied with abdominal sacrocolpopexy [9–14]. Investigators are attempting to reproduce this data with vaginal mesh [15–18]. The purpose of our study was to determine the erosion rate following synthetic graft- augmented vaginal reconstructive surgery in the early This study was accepted as an oral poster at the 2009 Society of Gynecologic Surgeons annual meeting in New Orleans, LA. P. S. Finamore (*) Division of Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Winthrop University Hospital, 259 First Street, Mineola, NY 11501, USA e-mail: pfinamore@hotmail.com e-mail: PFinamore@Winthrop.org K. T. Echols : A. S. Holzberg Division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, NJ, USA K. Hunter Biostatistics Group, Cooper University Hospital UMDNJ-RWJMS, Camden, NJ, USA H. B. Goldstein : B. Vakili Center for Urogynecology and Pelvic Surgery, Christiana Health Care System, Newark, DE, USA Int Urogynecol J (2010) 21:285–291 DOI 10.1007/s00192-009-1005-8