Biofeedback For Incontinence After Protatectomy
Biofeedback is a widely used technique that helps people understand how to control their body functions, including the urinary control. It has proved its efficiency in helping many men regain their urinary control.
Biofeedback therapy uses computer graphs and audios to make it easier for you to locate the muscles you a are working on. It is a teaching tool that instructes you how to strengthen your muscles.
What Kind Of Treatment Will I Need
There are many ways to treat prostate cancer. The main kinds of treatment are observation, active surveillance, surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, and chemo. Sometimes more than one kind of treatment is used.
The treatment thats best for you will depend on:
- Your age
- Any other health problems you might have
- The stage and grade of the cancer
- Your feelings about the need to treat the cancer
- The chance that treatment will cure the cancer or help in some way
- Your feelings about the side effects that might come with treatment
Should I Make Any Lifestyle Changes Including In My Diet Or Physical Activity
Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight by eating a balanced diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and staying physically active, can help your overall health. These lifestyle changes can also have a positive effect for men with bone metastases, Tagawa says. Both diet and exercise, he says, are things that are under a mans direct control.
A healthy lifestyle can help you better manage side effects from treatment as well. Try setting small but realistic goals for yourself when it comes to eating a healthy diet and getting plenty of exercise.
While no single food is likely to have a benefit for prostate cancer, smart food choices may help you feel better day to day. Start by cutting out foods high in sugar, saturated fat, and added flavorings and preservatives.
If youre not sure which healthy foods to choose, ask your doctor for a referral to a dietitian. This specialist can help you develop a meal plan that includes foods that offer the best chance of slowing the cancers growth and keeping you as healthy as possible.
As an oncologist, Tagawa says he concentrates on treating the cancer itself, but hes aware that many of the men he sees with advanced prostate cancer are older and more likely than younger men to have health problems that can benefit from diet and exercise.
And if youre on hormone therapy, talk to your doctor about investing in some weights or elastic resistance bands to support your bone strength too.
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Open Or Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy
In the more traditional approach to prostatectomy, called anopen prostatectomy, the surgeon operates through a single long skin incision to remove the prostate and nearby tissues. This type of surgery is done less often than in the past.
In a laparoscopic prostatectomy, the surgeon makes several smaller incisions and uses special long surgical tools to remove the prostate. The surgeon either holds the tools directly, or uses a control panel to precisely move robotic arms that hold the tools. This approach to prostatectomy has become more common in recent years. If done by experienced surgeons, the laparoscopic radical prostatectomy can give results similar to the open approach.
When To Call The Doctor About Catheter Pain
With time and practice, the process should go smoother. However, if the pain is sharp or feels intense, it can be a sign that something is wrong and you should stop catheterizing and contact your doctor. Under normal conditions, a catheter should slide in smoothly. If you feel resistance while inserting the catheter, you shouldnt force it in.
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Less Time Under Anesthesia With Open Prostatectomy
An open prostatectomy, however, is a much shorter surgery than the robotic procedure, which means patients spend less time under anesthesia. Length of anesthesia for an open prostatectomy is 2 to 3 hours, compared to 4 to 7 hours for a robotic prostatectomy.
In several measures, there is no demonstrated difference between open and robotic prostatectomy. The risk of blood transfusion for an open prostatectomy is less than 1 percent, and fewer than 1 percent of patients have wound complications. Post-operative pain on the morning following surgery is typically 2 on a 10-point scale. The patients length of stay in the hospital is 1½ to 2 days. Approximately 85 percent of patients regain excellent urinary control, and three-quarters retain sexual potency.
While all precautions are taken to reduce the likelihood of complications, no surgical treatment is completely without risk. Potential complications of open and robotic prostatectomies include infection, bleeding requiring blood transfusion, urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction and injury to adjacent organs.
What Is Robotic Prostate Surgery
A surgical treatment for prostate cancer, the radical prostatectomy procedure removes the entire prostate gland. Radical prostatectomy can now be done by laparoscopic or robotic techniques.In open prostate surgery, the prostate gland is removed through a larger incision in the lower abdomen. Laparoscopic prostate surgery involves key-hole incisions which used for inserting a lighted viewing instrument into the pelvic region and allows examination and removal of the prostate without a large abdominal incision.
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What You Need To Know About Prostate Surgery
What is prostate surgery for?
The prostate is a gland located underneath the bladder, in front of the rectum. It plays an important role in the part of the male reproductive system that produces fluids that carry sperm.
Surgery for partial or complete removal of the prostate is called a prostatectomy. The most common causes for prostate surgery are prostate cancer and an enlarged prostate, or benign prostatic hyperplasia .
Pretreatment education is the first step to making a decisions about your treatment. All types of prostate surgery can be done with general anesthesia, which puts you to sleep, or spinal anesthesia, which numbs the lower half of your body.
Your doctor will recommend a type of anesthesia based on your situation.
The goal of your surgery is to:
- cure your condition
- maintain the ability to have erections
- minimize side effects
- minimize pain before, during, and after surgery
Read on to learn more about the types of surgery, risks, and recovery.
The goal of prostate surgery also depends on your condition. For example, the goal of prostate cancer surgery is to remove cancerous tissue. The goal of BPH surgery is to remove prostate tissue and restore the normal flow of urine.
Prostatectomy: What To Expect During Surgery And Recovery
If youve been diagnosed withprostate cancer, your doctor will consider many factors before recommending the besttreatment. For many men, that may mean a prostatectomy. In this surgery,doctors remove the entire prostate.
The Johns Hopkins Hospital performs more of these procedures than almostanywhere else in the world. One of the most common questions they hear frompatients: What should I expect after surgery?
Johns Hopkins urologistMohamad Allaf, M.D., explains the surgery and recovery.
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After Prostatectomy: What To Expect
At the hospital : You should expect to be in the hospital for one night. At Johns Hopkins, all rooms on the urology floor are private. Here, nurses help patients get moving shortly after surgery to prevent blood clots and other postoperative risks.
First few days at home : After youre sent home, you might find that regular ibuprofen or acetaminophen will be sufficient pain management for the first few days. If over-the-counter medications arent enough, your doctor can help you with alternatives.
One week after surgery : After your surgery site heals, your catheter will be removed. This is usually seven to 10 days after surgery. This can easily be done at your doctors office. Some people decide to take out their catheter at home. If thats the case, ask your doctor for instructions first.
This is also about the time your surgeon will call you with the final pathology results. He or she will discuss what you should know and whether further treatment is necessary.
One month after surgery : Doctors recommend no strenuous activity or heavy lifting for at least one month after surgery. Most people take off work for three to four weeks. If you work from home, you could return to work sooner.
- Urinary incontinence
- Erectile dysfunction
Recovery from surgery takes time. These side effects are often temporary. However, if they are affecting your quality of life, ask your doctor about options that can help.
Types Of Prostate Surgery
There are several ways of removing the prostate keyhole surgery either by hand or robot-assisted, and open surgery.
Although robot-assisted keyhole surgery is the newest technique, the most recent research suggests all three techniques are as good as each other for treating prostate cancer, as long as the surgeon is experienced. They also have similar rates of side effects.
The advantages of keyhole surgery, both by hand and robot-assisted, are that you are likely to lose less blood, have less pain, spend less time in hospital, and heal more quickly than with open surgery.
Keyhole surgery
Keyhole surgery .
- Robot-assisted keyhole surgery Your surgeon makes five or six small cuts in your lower abdomen and a slightly bigger cut near your belly button, and removes the prostate using special surgical tools. These include a thin, lighted tube with a small camera on the tip. The image will appear on a screen so the surgeon can see what theyre doing. Your surgeon controls the tools from a console in the operating room via four or five robotic arms. Although its called robot-assisted, its still a surgeon who does the operation. You may hear the equipment called the da Vinci® Robot.
- Keyhole surgery by hand As with robot-assisted keyhole surgery, the surgeon will make four or five small cuts in your abdomen. But they will hold the surgical tools in their hands, rather than using robotic arms.
Open surgery
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Is Robotic Prostate Surgery Better
traditional prostate surgery has a clear winner. With robotic surgery, patients have a shorter hospital stay and recover more quickly. Doctors have a better chance of not leaving behind parts of a malignant tumor. And this type of surgery is actually easier to master than the traditional open variety.
What To Expect After Prostate Cancer Surgery
Surgery is a common option in trying to cure prostate cancer if it is not thought to have spread outside the prostate gland. After surgery you should expect to return to normal within a reasonable amount of time. It is expected for most patients to have excellent cancer control, normal urinary control, and the ability to have sex.
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How Long Does It Take For Prostate Cancer To Metastasize To Bone
prostate cancerspreadspread to bonesbones
The cancer cells spread to the bones by breaking away from the prostate gland and escaping attack from your immune system as they travel to your bones. These cancer cells then grow new tumors in your bones. Cancer can spread to any bone in the body, but the spine is most often affected.
Also, what is the treatment for prostate cancer that has spread to the bones? Men with prostate cancer that has spread to the bones may consider treatment that infuses a radioactive substance into a vein. Strontium-89 , samarium-153 and radium-223 are medications that target fast-growing cancer cells in the bones, and may help relieve bone pain.
One may also ask, how do you know if prostate cancer has spread?
Prostate cancer that has spread to the liver, intestines, or bones of the abdomen and pelvis can usually be found with a CT scan. Cancer which has spread to the lymph nodes can sometimes be detected if the lymph nodes have become enlarged.
What is the prognosis for prostate cancer that has spread to the bones?
There is currently no cure for advanced prostate cancer, but advances in treatments are extending life expectancy and improving quality of life. The ACS state that the 5-year relative survival rate for individuals with prostate cancer that has spread to distant lymph nodes, organs, or the bones is 29 percent.
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What Are The Advantages Of Cleveland Clinic’s Prostate Surgery Program
These procedures are performed through small key-hole incisions that do not cut muscle. Laparoscopic and robotic prostatectomy offer surgeons unparalleled visualization of the area, thus permitting precise removal of the prostate. Patients also experience significantly less blood loss. Additionally, patients benefit from:
- Reduced hospital stay after surgery and faster healing
- Less postoperative pain and virtually no need for pain medication
- Earlier removal of catheter
- Shorter recovery time
- Quicker return to normal activity and work
- Smaller “Band-aid” incisions and less scarring
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Side Effects Of Prostate Surgery
The major possible side effects of radical prostatectomy are urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction . These side effects can also occur with other forms of prostate cancer treatment.
Urinary incontinence: You may not be able to control your urine or you may have leakage or dribbling. Being incontinent can affect you not only physically but emotionally and socially as well. These are the major types of incontinence:
- Men with stress incontinence might leak urine when they cough, laugh, sneeze, or exercise. Stress incontinence is the most common type after prostate surgery. It’s usually caused by problems with the valve that keeps urine in the bladder . Prostate cancer treatments can damage this valve or the nerves that keep the valve working.
- Men with overflow incontinence have trouble emptying their bladder. They take a long time to urinate and have a dribbling stream with little force. Overflow incontinence is usually caused by blockage or narrowing of the bladder outlet by scar tissue.
- Men with urge incontinencehave a sudden need to urinate. This happens when the bladder becomes too sensitive to stretching as it fills with urine.
- Rarely after surgery, men lose all ability to control their urine. This is called continuous incontinence.
After surgery for prostate cancer, normal bladder control usually returns within several weeks or months. This recovery usually occurs slowly over time.
There are several options for treating erectile dysfunction:
What Is The Success Rate Of Prostate Surgery
Looking at survival rates, the researchers found that 88.6 percent of men were still alive 10 years later and 72.7 percent of men were still alive 20 years later. During a salvage radical prostatectomy, the prostate gland and surrounding tissue are surgically removed to keep the cancer from spreading.
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Open Prostatectomy For Prostate Cancer
Open prostatectomy is a traditional open surgical procedure, which means the surgeon accesses the prostate gland through a standard surgical incision. For most patients, the incision is 4 to 5 inches long.
In contrast, a robotic prostatectomy performed with laparoscopic instruments requires several smaller incisions.
The open procedures longer incision results in a slightly longer recovery time. While the average recovery time following robotic prostatectomy is 4-1/2 weeks, recovery following open prostatectomy is about 6 weeks.
What Is The Importance Of Preserved Erectile Function
In considering the impact of the various treatment approaches for prostate cancer on their quality of life, many patients place paramount importance on the possibility of retaining natural erectile function. This matter is frequently important to young men who by age status are more likely to have intact erectile function than older men however, for all men having normal preoperative erectile function irrespective of age, preservation of this function is understandably important postoperatively.
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What Is The Difference Between Robotic And Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy
Both are minimally-invasive techniques of performing radical prostatectomy for cancer. In laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, the surgeon stands by the operating table and himself manipulates the instruments. In robotic prostatectomy the surgeon is seated at a robotic console near the patient from where he drive the robotic instruments to perform the operation. The robot faithfully and accurately reproduces the surgeon’s sophisticated maneuvers.
Symptoms Of Advanced Prostate Cancer
The symptoms of advanced prostate cancer depend on where the cancer has spread to. Find out about the possible symptoms and when to see your doctor.
Advanced prostate cancer means that a cancer that began in the prostate gland has spread to another part of the body. If your cancer has spread you might:
- have bone pain
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Choosing An Incontinence Product
Choosing an incontinence product depends on the severity of your incontinence and your mobility. If you only have the occasional light leak, a low absorbency light product is ideal. Typically, small incontinence pads are the most ideal for light incontinence. For more moderate leaks, a larger pad or pant product is recommended. For heavy to severe incontinence, an all in one pad is ideal. However, it is very rare that people have heavy incontinence after Prostate Surgery.
If you have low mobility or are immobile, a pad is your better option. Pants are harder to put on and take off than simple pads, as they require a full product change.
Was The Surgery Successful
The prostate gland will be examined under a microscope in the laboratory after it has been removed. The doctor will check the grade of the cancer cells again. and check that the edges of the prostate are clear of cancer, called ‘checking the margins’.
Negative margins: No cancer cells.Positive margins: Cancer cells found at the edge of the prostate.
These tests are used to predict your response to the treatment along with PSA checks. Your PSA level should drop within weeks of surgery.
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