Gluteal and Posterior Thigh Pain From a Suture Compared With an Anchor-Based Device in Patients Undergoing Sacrospinous Ligament Fixation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE To compare postoperative gluteal and posterior thigh pain, device performance, and perioperative complications in women undergoing sacrospinous ligament fixation with an anchor-based compared with a suture-capturing device. METHODS This was a single-center, patient-blinded, parallel, superiority trial of patients undergoing native-tissue pelvic organ prolapse repair through sacrospinous ligament fixation with an anchor-based compared with suture-capturing device using randomized-block randomization. The primary outcome was the increase in gluteal and posterior thigh pain from baseline to 1-week postoperation using the numerical rating scale. Pain was also assessed at postoperative day 1, week 6, and a summarized assessment for the first postoperative week. Intraoperative device performance, home opioid pain medication use, and changes in prolapse symptom scores were also analyzed. To provide 80% power to detect a pain difference of 2.5 points between the groups with an SD of 2.8 and a 15% dropout estimate using a two-sided 5% significance level, 24 patients were required per group. Analysis with Student's t test, Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, and Fisher exact tests were performed as well as an analysis of covariance for the primary outcome. RESULTS Between September 2018 and June 2020, 47 patients (24 anchor-based and 23 suture-capturing) were included in the study. There was no significant difference between the anchor-based and suture-capture groups in mean change in gluteal and posterior thigh pain from baseline to 1-week postoperation (-0.4, 95% CI -1.6 to 2.3). The highest pain increase from baseline during the first postoperative week was also similar between the two groups (up 4.00 and up 4.74, respectively) with no significant difference between the anchor-based and suture-capture groups (-0.7, 95% CI -1.4 to 2.8). There were no differences in changes in pain at any of the other timepoints, in opioid pain medication utilization, device performance, or in prolapse symptom scores. CONCLUSION An anchor-based device did not reduce postoperative gluteal and posterior thigh pain compared with a suture-based device after sacrospinous ligament fixation. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03565640. FUNDING SOURCE Supported by Neomedic via Adler Instruments. Neomedic provided funding for this principal investigator-initiated study. Funding went to providing small value gift cards to patients for study completion, office supplies for the study, and funding the data analysis collaboration with the Wake Forest Baptist Health CTSI Biostatistics Department. Neomedic did not have any direct role in study design, patient recruitment, study execution, data analysis, or manuscript writing or editing.