a 39-year - old woman had received the pharmacological treatments for a 1-year - history of symptoms such as recurrent sui , vaginal discharge , perineal pain , and vaginal odor . the patient was referred to us from the local obstetrics & gynecology clinics following the diagnosis of recurrent bartholin 's abscess and recurrent sui . on past history due to the recurrence of incontinence symptom , the patient had also received tot procedure ( tension free obturator tape , dowmedics co. , wonju , korea ) three years ago . thus , she complained of above - mentioned symptoms at 2 years later after tot procedure . under impression of bartholin 's abscess , the patient underwent bartholin gland duct incision and drainage at that clinic . on admission in our urologic department , the patient had a good profile of nutritional status and systemic one . there were also normal findings in vital signs such as blood pressure , heart rate and body temperature . on physical examination , the patient had a tape suspected tot mesh protruded to the anterior vaginal wall and urethral erosion ( fig . besides , there was a scar left following an incision and a drainage of bartholin 's gland on the left side of medial vaginal wall . when an indwelling urethral catheter was inserted , the catheter was palpated and then observed to the inside of dissected urethra within the vagina on the posterior side of a tape which was exposed to the anterior vaginal wall . around the vagina to which a catheter was exposed , firstly , the patient underwent a urine culture test and a peri - urethral culture in vagina and then had pseudomonas aeruginosa identified . the patient had a decreased vaginal discharge and negative results to a urine culture test and a wound culture test . thus , surgery was performed under spinal anesthesia , for which the patient was laid in a lithotomy position . then , following the removal of a tape for sui , a cystoscope was inserted via a vagina . it was thus confirmed that more than half of the urethral tissue were lost due to the erosion and the peri - urethral tissue was necrotized tissue around the urethra were confirmed . following the sufficient removal of dissected para - urethral tissue , an end - to - end anastomosis was performed for the dissected urethra using the adjacent tissue ( figs . 3 , 4 ) . on postoperative day 9 , the uroflowmetry study showed the maximal urinary flow rate 39.9 ml / sec , the voiding amount 398 ml and the amount of residual urine after voiding 17 ml . during a 12-month postoperative period , the patient received an outpatient follow - up . . besides , the patient presented with no complications such as voiding difficulty or recurrent incontinence . surgical treatment methods using a synthetic tape for sui , such as tot and tvt , may produce postoperative complications and these include bladder puncture , hematoma , urgency , urinary retension , urinary tract infection , wound infection , vaginal erosion , vascular injury , and bowel injury . of various complications , as the time elapses , the incidence of complications has been increased in association with a synthetic tape which is used for the procedure . it has been reported that vaginal erosion and infections occur at an incidence of approximately 1% . in 1997 , the american urological association incontinence clinical panel performed a meta - analysis , according to which the incidence of vaginal mucosal erosion due to a synthetic substance was reported to be 0.7% . shah et al .   also reported that the incidence of vaginal mucosal erosion due to a synthetic substance during a sling procedure with a polypropylene mesh was 6.2 to 7.2% . and karram et al . reported that the incidence of vaginal erosion following incontience surgery with a synthetic tape reached a value of 0.2 to 22% . reported that the incidence of vaginal erosion was 0.4 to 3.8% following tvt surgery according to a review of literatures which have been published during the 2000 's . in korea , kim et al .   have recently reported that the incidence of vaginal erosion following a sling procedure was 1.4% . it has been reported that there are rare cases of complications which should be surgically corrected following a sling procedure . vaginal erosion is a rare complication , and it occurs due to an inappropriate suture of the surgical sites following incontinence surgery , wound infection , delayed wound healing and foreign body reactions . and it is known as a risk factor in obese patients , diabetic ones and immunocompromised ones . it is known that the removal of a sling tape is important for the treatment of vaginal erosion following a sling procedure . it can commonly be encountered , however , that patients are not actually in need of the treatment due to economic and psychological reasons . in these cases , however , there is a possibility that symptoms might be aggravated due to the delayed treatment . this leads to the speculation that the active treatment should be recommended . in the current case , there was a past history of pelvic surgery which may be a risk factor . and , following the exposure of a synthetic tape due to vaginal erosion , the wound was aggravated due to the continuous infections and bartholin 's abscess . this might be responsible for the occurrence of urethral erosion and dissection . besides , the vaginal damage due to a repeated incontinence surgery and the foreign body reactions occurring during wound healing might also be responsible for the occurrence of urethral erosion and dissection . to prevent the possible occurrence of postoperative complications , the possibility for the intraoperative contamination of surgical wound should be minimized . in cases of postoperative complications such as vaginal erosion and infections , a complete removal of the infected tissue and a tape as well as the administration of sufficient antibiotics would be mandatory . although a midurethral sling procedure , which is performed for patients with sui , is a relatively simple method that causes a lesser extent of complications , there is a possibility that complications might occur and then affect the clinical course of patients as shown in this case . accordingly , a regular follow - up observation might be mandatory for the possible occurrence of postoperative complications .
midurethral tension - free sling procedure has become one of the most popular techniques for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence . 
 as the time elapsed , however , complications associated with a synthetic tape have been reported to occur . 
 recently , we experienced a rare case of urethral erosion with perineal cellulitis at anterior wall of vagina after midurethral sling procedure . so our experience was presented with a review of literature .