Mesh Removal Now Supported on SurgicalPerformance: A New Opportunity for Surgeons and Patients

In response to one of the most challenging surgical pathways in women’s health, SurgicalPerformance is proud to announce that we made available case‐tracking support for mesh removal surgery. This specialised service for women suffering complications from vaginal, pelvic or rectal mesh implants reflects our ongoing mission: to help surgeons achieve predictable patient pathways, gather meaningful outcomes, and elevate quality of life for patients.

In this article we’ll touch on the Australian regulatory and medico-legal landscape around mesh, the pain points for surgeons working in this field, how we collaborated with leading specialists to build this feature, and how SP’s core capabilities (including PROMs) help you capture and analyse what matters most.

The Australian Mesh Recall/Inquest Landscape

The story of urogynaecological mesh in Australia is now well known — but it’s worth summarising given how it underpins the need for rigorous tracking and outcome measurement.

• The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has created a dedicated “Urogynaecological (transvaginal) surgical mesh hub” to provide information and support about these devices. Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)+2Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)+2

• From 1 December 2018 all urogynaecological mesh devices in Australia were re-classified as Class III (highest risk) medical devices, meaning that going forward they require more rigorous evaluation. Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)+1

• On 1 July 2018, the Australian Government changed the Medicare Benefits Schedule so that rebates would only apply for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) surgery that does not use urogynaecological mesh — a clear regulatory signal of caution. Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)

• On the legal front, in March 2023 the Federal Court of Australia approved a landmark settlement of AUD $300 million in two class actions brought against Johnson & Johnson and it’s subsidiary Ethicon in connection with pelvic/uro-gynaecological mesh implants. Maddocks+1

• More broadly, thousands of Australian women have suffered chronic complications including pain, dyspareunia, organ erosion and multiple revision surgeries. ABC+1

What this context shows is that mesh-related surgical procedures are high stakes: for patients, for surgeons, for hospitals and for regulatory oversight. And in that environment, the case for systematic outcome tracking (not just auditing) as well as surgeons tracking their own outcomes becomes very strong.

The Surgeon’s Perspective: Why Mesh Removal Is a Complex, High-Stakes Domain

For the surgeon working in the “mesh removal” area, the clinical, logistical and emotional demands can be intense. Some of the key pain-points include:

• Complex case selection and consent – Given the heightened risk profile, detailed informed-consent discussions are essential. Surgeons must clearly explain the risk of further revision, persistent symptoms, sexual dysfunction, and long-term follow-up requirements.
  
  

• Risk of “when things don’t go to plan” scenarios – Revision/removal surgery may not always resolve symptoms; there may be persistent pain, adjacent organ damage, fibrosis, or unexpected pathology. Planning and predicting outcomes is inherently more difficult.
  
  

• Patient expectation management – Many of these patients present after multiple prior interventions, with ongoing pain, functional impairment or quality-of-life decline. Helping these women understand likely recovery trajectories and managing the emotional burden is critical.
  
  

• Outcome-tracking and benchmarking gaps – Historically, many surgeons performing mesh-removal work may have limited access to comparative data: how other surgeons are performing, what typical timeline for recovery looks like, what PROMs (patient-reported outcome measures) are being achieved.
  
  

• Reputational and systemic scrutiny – Given the broader mesh controversy, surgeons in this domain may feel heightened scrutiny from patients, media, institutions and regulators. Having robust data and transparent tracking helps build credibility and supports quality improvement.

Recognising these specific challenges, SurgicalPerformance has engaged with leading mesh-removal surgeons to ensure our platform supports the workflow, data needs and outcome metrics that matter in this domain.

How SurgicalPerformance Supports Mesh Removal Cases

Our new offering to track outcomes of mesh-removal surgery is built around two core pillars: tailored case-tracking and PROMs integration. Here’s how it supports your work:

• Customised Procedure Tracking

  • When adding the new 'Mesh Removal Surgery' procedure surgeons are able to track all the intricacies and distinct details that are involved with removing mesh, including: Indications, Pre-operative testing, the location and characteristics of pain, the surgery attempt, the type and brand of the mesh being removed, the type of mesh removal performed along with any grafts/flaps, the total measurement of mesh removed and mesh removal surgery specific complications.
    
    

• PROMs and Patient Follow-Up

  • The integrated PROMs module allows you to send electronic surveys at defined intervals. This enables meaningful tracking of symptom relief, pain levels, sexual function, patient satisfaction, and quality of life.

  • Colour-coded dashboards track patient open-rates, response-rates and outcomes so you can see who is improving, plateauing or deteriorating.

  • The focus on PROMs aligns with the critical point: that for mesh-removal surgery, the patient’s recovery and quality of life are the ultimate benchmarks of success.
    
    

• Risk Mitigation & Predictability

  • With robust tracking of “when things don’t go to plan” events (such as unexpected findings, additional organ involvement, delayed recovery), you build a dataset that supports more accurate consent discussions, better pathway planning and patient expectation-setting.

  • Over time, as your cohort grows, you’ll be able to identify patterns within your own data (such as correlations between prior surgeries and slower recovery, or early PROMs plateaus predicting persistent symptoms) helping you refine your practice and improve outcomes.

Why This Matters Now

With the mesh landscape in Australia having evolved rapidly, the need for dedicated mesh-removal pathway tracking is clearer than ever:

• Many women who received mesh implants (some decades ago) are now presenting with late complications; surgeons are seeing increasing volumes of revision/removal work.

• The medico-legal and regulatory context (class actions, device re-classification, heightened patient awareness) means patients are better informed and expect transparency: “How many cases have you done? What outcomes can I expect?”.

• Capturing patient-reported outcomes is no longer a “nice to have” but a core element of demonstrating value, quality and patient-centred care. In high-complexity domains like mesh-removal, it becomes a differentiator.

• For patients whose lives have been deeply impacted by mesh complications (pain, sexual dysfunction, incontinence, repeated surgeries), demonstrating statistically meaningful improvement in quality of life is the ultimate measure of success — something that PROMs and longitudinal tracking do better than simple surgical “success/no success” measures.

For Surgeons - By Surgeons to Build This Feature

From the outset, SurgicalPerformance worked closely with surgeons who specialise in mesh removal to ensure this offering meets real-world needs. Together with Dr Thomas Carins and Dr Rebecca Young, we co-designed:

• the key data fields specific to mesh removal (e.g., surgery attempt, the type and brand of the mesh being removed, location and characteristics of pain and more)

• the dashboard views required for tracking recovery trajectories, complications and benchmarking

• the reporting tools that allow surgeons to present outcomes to hospital credentialing committees, corporate partners or quality-governance groups

This co-design ensures that the mesh-removal procedure is as detailed and informative as required, making it a pathway-specific tool built by surgeons, for surgeons.

Key Take-aways for Surgeons

• If you are performing mesh-removal surgery (or are planning to build such a practice stream), using dedicated outcome-tracking tools provides you with clarity, structure and comparative intelligence.

• PROMs matter: your patients will judge your success not solely on whether the mesh is removed, but on how their pain, sexual function, continence and quality of life evolve. Having pre-op, early-post and late-post data strengthens your narrative and your practice.

• Data supports consent, planning and expectation-management: when you can say “in patients like yours, we have seen a 70 % reduction in pain at 6 months” (for example), that supports better shared-decision-making.

• In a landscape of heightened scrutiny (regulatory, legal, institutional), being able to demonstrate structured outcome-tracking, transparent patient follow-up and data-driven improvement differentiates your practice and builds trust.

We invite you to explore how the new mesh-removal procedure in SurgicalPerformance can support your practice. Whether you are already established in this space or are considering expanding your speciality, SurgicalPerformance offers:

• Tailored case-tracking fields specific to mesh-removal work

• Integrated automated PROMs workflows, scheduled by you

• Dashboards and benchmarking logic to analyse outcomes and identify improvement opportunities

• Reporting tools to support credentialing, patient-communication, and quality governance
  
  

If you’d like a demo of how this works in practice, or would like to speak with one of our surgeon-users working in mesh-removal, our team would be delighted to assist. At its heart, the goal is simple: to help you deliver better patient journeys, more predictable recovery pathways and meaningful improvement in the lives of women who have faced mesh-related complications.

Watch a demo