Introduction: Relevant, meaningful, and achievable data points are critical in objectively assessing quality, utility and outcomes in female SUI surgery. Adherence to the previously proposed minimum data set for future studies in female SUI surgery, outlined in the first AUA Guidelines on the Surgical Management of Female SUI in 1997, has been suboptimal. The SUFU SUI Publication Outcomes Working Group (SSPOWG) was tasked with creating a common minimum data set to be utilized by authors, investigators, journal editors, and reviewers in refereeing literature pertaining to SUI surgery. Methods: The SSPOWG reviewed the minimum data set proposed in the 1997 AUA SUI Guideline document, and other relevant literature. The body of literature was examined in the context of the profound changes in the field over the past 25 years. Through an iterative process, a minimum data set was generated balancing the desire to have a number of meaningful and relevant data points against the burden of creating an excessively difficult or restrictive standard that would disincentivize widespread adoption. Results: The minimum data set is sub-divided into 3 categories: 1. study features/design; 2. preoperative evaluation; 3. postoperative evaluation. Important study features include an accounting of all patients entered into the study and defined criteria for success. Preoperative evaluation should include relevant demographic, anatomical, and physiological characterization of the population under study and patient reported data in the form of a standardized questionnaire. Postoperative evaluation should include follow up data for all patients at a minimum of one year, at least one residual urine assessment and physical examination, a thorough accounting of intraoperative and postoperative complications/adverse events, outcomes related to the pre- defined criteria for success/failure, and a postoperative patient reported outcomes assessment measured with standardized questionnaire(s). Conclusions: A reasonable, achievable, and clinically meaningful minimum data set has been constructed. Such a structured framework will allow future surgical interventions for female SUI to be objectively scrutinized and compared in a clinically significant manner. Ultimately, such a data set, if adopted by the academic community, will improve the quality of the female SUI surgical literature. SOURCE OF Funding: None
