Patient-Specific Pessaries for Pelvic Organ Prolapse Using Three-Dimensional Printing: A Pilot Study
Open accessAbstract
Importance: Vaginal pessaries are an effective nonsurgical treatment for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) when properly fitted. However, pessary fitting and use are often unsuccessful or imperfect. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of using patient-specific pessaries fabricated from three-dimensional (3D)-printed molds to improve POP symptoms and increase overall satisfaction of pessary treatment in patients using standard vaginal pessaries. Study Design: Patients undergoing POP treatment with standard vaginal pessaries were enrolled in this pilot prospective study. Patient-specific pessaries were designed and fabricated for each patient using patient input, physician input, and anatomic measurements from clinical assessment. Pessary fabrication involved injection of biocompatible liquid silicone rubber into 3D-printed molds followed by a biocompatible silicone coating. Pelvic organ prolapse symptomatic distress and pessary treatment satisfaction were evaluated before and after a 3-week patient-specific pessary home trial using the validated Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory-6 form and a visual analog scale, respectively. Results: Eight women were included in this study. Changing from standard pessary to patient-specific pessary treatment was associated with an improvement in prolapse symptoms on the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory-6 (median change, −3.5; interquartile range, −5 to −2.5; P = 0.02) and an increase in overall pessary satisfaction on a visual analog scale (median change, +2.0; interquartile range, +1.0 to +3.0; P = 0.02). All patients reported either an improvement or no change in pessary ease of use, comfort, and the feeling of support provided by the pessary. Conclusion: Patient-specific vaginal pessaries are a promising alternative to standard pessaries for alleviating POP symptoms and improving patient satisfaction with pessary use.
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Use of newer 3-D printed pessaries appears to be associated with improvements in quality of life and in the pelvic floor distress inventory in small pilot studies.
“For example, use of newer 3‐D printed pessaries appears to be associated with improvements in quality of life and in the pelvic floor distress inventory in small pilot studies, warranting further exploration of use [52, 53, 54].”
From How Can We Improve the Assessment and Indifferent Outcomes From Pelvic Organ Prolapse Management From Conservative and Surgical Therapies? ICI‐RS 2025 (2026) · cites this paper as [52]
The Results section (page unavailable) reports improved prolapse distress on the POPDI-6 and greater pessary satisfaction in eight women after switching to patient-specific 3-D printed pessaries. It does not report a quality-of-life outcome or an improvement on the full Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory; POPDI-6 is the narrower measure used here. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Hong, C. X., Zhang, S., Eltahawi, A., Borazjani, A., Kalami, H., San, A. N., Sham, D., Ameri, G., & McDermott, C. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Cosm Medical Corp., Toronto, ON, Canada
- Northwestern University (US)
- Mount Sinai Hospital (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Hong, Christopher X.
- Venue
- Urogynecology
- Published
- 2023-03-09
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 732-739
- ISSN
- 2151-8378 (ISSN-L)
- 2771-1897
- PMC
- PMC10476593
- OpenAlex
- W4353020733
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 4.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Urogynecology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rheumatology › Pelvic floor disorders treatments
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Anatomy and Medical Technology
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies
- Keywords
- pelvic organ prolapse, pessary, three-dimensional printing, pessary fitting, conservative treatment
- MeSH terms
- Female, Humans, Pessaries, Pilot Projects, Prospective Studies, Pelvic Organ Prolapse, Printing, Three-Dimensional
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