Transvaginal Mesh

These resources were developed to assist women considering treatment options for pelvic organ prolapse, stress urinary incontinence and transvaginal mesh complications. The resources also provide support for discussions with health care professionals.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has produced resources for clinicians and consumers to complement the requirement that from 1 December 2021 all Implantable and Active Implantable Medical Devices are required to have patient information materials available in the form of both Patient Information Leaflets and Patient Implant Cards, unless specifically excluded from these requirements.

The care pathways describe clinical considerations for assessment of women who have pelvic organ prolapse, stress urinary incontinence and transvaginal mesh complications. The pathways provide clinicians with an evidence-based approach to first line management, specialised surgical and non-surgical care and the types of medical specialists who may be involved in providing care.

The care pathways also provide an opportunity for alignment with the pathways used by a number of Primary Health Networks to guide the discussions between women and their general practitioners.

The surgical pathways for pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence use a traffic light approach (red, yellow, green) to identify options for surgical treatments, based on the strength of evidence and potential patient outcomes for each type of procedure.

To support the use of the pathways, an interactive care pathway with anatomical illustrations of procedures is available via the links below. Once the pathways open you can click on the preferred pathways for pop-up windows which describe grade of recommendations and images, as is relevant.

• Interactive pelvic organ prolapse surgical care pathway
• Interactive stress urinary incontinence surgical care pathway

Credentialing is the process used by public and private hospitals to ensure that only suitably experienced, trained and qualified medical practitioners provide particular types of services. Credentialing is essential to ensure the safety of patient care.

Guidance has been developed for hospital credentialing and training of senior medical practitioners who perform transvaginal mesh surgeries and mesh removal. The Guidance describes the experience and qualifications that senior medical practitioners need to be credentialed to implant and remove mesh for treatment of POP and SUI. It also includes recommendations on device-specific training, the requirements for maintaining skills, monitoring and reporting on patient outcomes, the types of specialty supports services hospitals should have if they offer implantation and removal of transvaginal mesh and the requirement for post-operative follow-up.

The states and territories and the private health sector can consider the use of the Guidance in their local credentialing processes. 

Credentialing guidance has been prepared by the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Urogynaecological Society of Australasia and the Australasian Gynaecological Endoscopy and Surgery Society Society for the performance of abdominal sacrocolpopexy to treat POP. 

The Urogynaecological Society of Australasia has developed a consensus statement on the model of care for abdominal sacrocolpopexy for use by surgeons credentialled to perform sacrocolpopexy. 

Urogynaecological Society of Australasia - Model of Care for abdominal sacrocolpopexy

2024

Guide, user guide or guidelines

The service model framework supports states and territories and the private sector in the planning of services for the use and removal of transvaginal mesh devices and managment of mesh-related complications. This resource also includes information provided by the states and territories about local services.

Service model framework for transvaginal mesh complications and removal

2022

Guide, user guide or guidelines