Different Types Of Radical Prostatectomy
There are various types of radical prostatectomy.
- Radical prostatectomy with the retropubic approach
This is the most common type of radical surgery performed by most urologists. By means of this procedure, the surgeon can even remove the lymph nodes if they are also affected by prostate cancer.
If cancer has spread into the nervous area, there may be fewer chances to spare the nerves that are related to erection production. In this case, the surgeon may need to cut the nerves on both sides of the prostate, thus losing the erectile function. But if cancer has not spread to the nerves, then the erectile function may come back to normal in a short while.
- Radical prostatectomy with the perineal approach
Radical prostatectomy with the perineal approach is used less often than the prostatectomy with the retropubic approach. By using this surgical technique, the nerves can not be spared. Also, the lymph nodes can not be removed. However, the advantage of this procedure is that is less time-consuming. Also, it is recommended for men who may not benefit any more from nerve-sparing. Al factors need to be taken into account, as the perineal approach is more painful and esthetically not so good looking.
- Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy
Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy involves several small incisions through which small instruments are being introduced with a video camera inside.
- Robotic radical prostatectomy
Insite Vision System With High
This component provides true 3-D images of the operative field during robotic prostate surgery. Operative images are enhanced, refined, and optimized using image synchronizers, high-intensity illuminators, and camera control units during the course of the robotic-assisted surgery.
Learn More About Robotic Prostate Surgery and Prostate Cancer Treatment:
Questions To Ask Your Doctor Or Nurse
You may find it helpful to keep a note of any questions you have to take to your next appointment.
- What type of surgery do you recommend for me and why?
- What type of surgery do you recommend for me? Will you try to do nerve-sparing surgery?
- How many of these operations have you done and how many do you do each year?
- Can I see the results of radical prostatectomies youve carried out?
- What pain relief will I get after the operation?
- How and when will we know whether the operation has removed all of the cancer?
- How often will my PSA level be checked?
- What is the chance of needing further treatment after surgery?
- What is the risk of having urinary problems or erection problems and what support can you offer me?
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Recovery After Greenlight Laser Surgery
Please note that these recommendations apply to patients who undergo Greenlight Laser prostatectomy at New York Urology Specialists. Other surgeons may have different recommendations. Please contact your surgeon for instructions.
Patients can have a regular diet after the Greenlight laser of the prostate. For patients who undergo Greenlight laser prostatectomy at New York Urology Specialists, you may drink alcohol socially within reason once youre not taking medications.
You also may engage in regular nonstrenuous activities such as walking. Men should avoid sexual activity for 3-4 weeks after the Greenlight laser procedure to allow the prostate to heal. Similarly, biking and strenuous running should be avoided for 3-4 weeks after the procedure as it may provoke bleeding.
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Prostate Surgery Complications And Risks
Surgery is an inherently risky medical procedure. However, for prostate cancer treatment, surgery can be the most effective choice for eradicating malignant tumors without the painful side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Among the more serious risks associated with surgical treatment is the possibility of infection at the incision site. Such infections are often the primary cause of serious complications which may hamper a quick and uneventful recovery.
The da Vinci system greatly mitigates the risk of infection during robotic prostate surgery.
First, the size of the incision is significantly smaller with robotic prostate surgery than with the traditional procedure. A standard, non-robotic prostate surgery requires a six- to eight-inch vertical incision to the abdomen. A large, open incision increases the patients susceptibility to bacterial infection during and after the surgery.
Post-operative infections are more common than intra-operative infections, as hospital rooms are not maintained at the same level of sterility in which operating rooms are. The da Vinci robotic prostate surgery system utilizes a much less invasive technique requiring four to five small incisions, each less than two inches.
These smaller incisions will heal significantly faster than the large incision needed in traditional surgery.
Other prostate surgery complications may be:
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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:
Treatment Options For Urinary Incontinence Can Include:
- Pelvic floor physical therapy. These specialized physical therapists are trained to help men strengthen their pelvic floor muscles. These muscles help you control the flow of urine. The exercises are called Kegel exercises just as you might do bicep curls to strengthen your arm muscles Kegel exercises help you learn to tighten and relax the muscles that control your flow.
- Bladder training. The bladder is a muscular organ that can be trained. A pelvic floor physical therapist or your urologist will provide simple behavioral changes to help retrain your bladder.
- Medication. Prescription medicines help the muscles in your bladder and sphincter . These medications work well for men with urge incontinence.
- Surgery. Surgery may be scheduled if you have a blockage. Other surgical procedures include injecting collagen to strengthen the urinary sphincter that controls urine release or implanting an artificial urinary sphincter.
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How To Prepare For Your Surgery
Your urologist or doctor will give you specific instructions to prepare for your surgery. Typically, they will want to send you for a few diagnostic tests, like blood draws or X-rays, to verify your general health prior to surgery. Your doctor will also advise if you need to stop taking any of your normal medications.
Dont make any sudden changes without first consulting your doctor. However, there are several easy lifestyle changes you can start doing right now to help your surgery go smoothly and speed up your recovery time.
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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Results Side Effects And What’s Next
According to their results, the more intensive treatments led to better outcomes. Just over 70% of men in group 1 were still avoiding disease progression after five years, compared with 80.3% of men in group 2 and 87.4% of men in group 3. More specifically, 145 of the men in group 1 developed further PSA elevations during the follow-up period, compared with 104 men in group 2 and 83 men in group 3. Similar trends were observed with respect to how many men developed metastases, or cancer that becomes resistant to hormonal therapy after it begins to spread.
The more intensive treatments also had more short-term side effects, especially diarrhea. But differences in side effects between the three groups disappeared after three months.
The authors emphasized that longer follow-up is still needed to confirm whether adding ADT and pelvic node radiation to PBRT actually lengthens survival. Moreover, the study did not evaluate a newer therapeutic strategy for biochemical relapse, where doctors use novel imaging methods to find exceedingly small metastases throughout the body that they treat directly with radiation.
About the Author
Charlie Schmidt, Editor, Harvard Medical School Annual Report on Prostate Diseases
Treatment For Cpg 1 Localised Prostate Cancer
You might not have treatment straight away. Instead, your doctor recommends monitoring your cancer closely and then discussing treatment if the cancer begins to grow. This is called active surveillance.
If you decide to have treatment, it might include:
- surgery to remove your prostate or
- external radiotherapy
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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.
The Cambridge Prognostic Groups
In the UK, doctors divide prostate cancer into 5 prognostic groups. This is the Cambridge Prognostic Group . The 5 groups are from CPG 1 to CPG 5. Your CPG depends on:
- the tumour stage. This is from the T stage from the TNM staging
- what the cancer cells look under a microscope. This is the Grade Group or Gleason score
- your PSA blood test level
The CPG helps your doctor recommend if you need treatment and the type of treatment you need. Doctors also consider other factors when recommending the best treatment for you:
- your age and general health
- how you feel about the treatment and side effects
If you cant have treatment because of your age or other health issues, your doctor might monitor the cancer with watchful waiting. They will only recommend treatment if the cancer starts to cause you symptoms.
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Why Is There Increasing Concern At This Time Regarding Erectile Dysfunction Issues Following Radical Prostatectomy
The reality of the recovery process after radical prostatectomy today is that erectile function recovery lags behind functional recovery in other areas. Patients are understandably concerned about this issue and, following months of erectile dysfunction, become skeptical of reassurances that their potency will return.
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Before Surgery Start Your Pelvic Floor Exercises
- These should be started before surgery and only stopped once you are completely continent after the operation.
- Youll be shown how to do the exercises during your pre-operative assessment visit, but essentially these pelvic floor muscles are the ones that you use to interrupt your urine stream. A strong pelvic floor therefore allows you greater control over your continence after the operation.
- More precisely, the muscles aid urinary control whilst your valve of continence recovers from the operation. This valve essentially switches your urine stream on and off, and is affected during surgery. Stitches in the valve take 6 weeks to dissolve and the scar tissue surrounding it takes up to a year to soften, so we need to help it after the operation. By creating a strong pelvic floor with your exercises, the muscles are able to squeeze around this valve and help it to close during the recovery period.
Ill be covering how to perform the exercises in a later article as its slightly out of the scope of this article, but for now there is an excellent guide from Prostate Cancer UK here, as well as a video to watch here.
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Risks Of Prostate Surgery
The risks with any type of radical prostatectomy are much like those of any major surgery. Problems during or shortly after the operation can include:
- Reactions to anesthesia
- Blood clots in the legs or lungs
- Damage to nearby organs
- Infections at the surgery site.
Rarely, part of the intestine might be injured during surgery, which could lead to infections in the abdomen and might require more surgery to fix. Injuries to the intestines are more common with laparoscopic and robotic surgeries than with the open approach.
If lymph nodes are removed, a collection of lymph fluid can form and may need to be drained.
In extremely rare cases, a man can die because of complications of this operation. Your risk depends, in part, on your overall health, your age, and the skill of your surgical team.
Will I Be Incontinent
Some patients have full urinary control as soon as the catheter is removed. Most patients experience some urinary leakage, which clears up in an average of three weeks but can take as long as 18 months. Small incontinence pads may be worn during this time to absorb any leaking urine and protect your clothing. For one out of 20 men, leakage may persist longer or even be permanent.
We define incontinence as needing more than two pads a day, says Dr. Mohler. Four out of five men wont need any pads at all. One in five will need one to two mini pads per day. One in 100 will end up needing more than two pads per day. This has a devastating effect on quality of life for these men. We dont fully understand why this happens, and we cannot predict who will have this experience. Strengthening the pelvic floor muscles with Kegel exercises before and after your operation may help you avoid or recover from problems with urinary control.
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Coping With The Side Effects
The side effects of both surgery and radiation can vary from mild to more severe and potentially significantly impact someones life.
The side effects of urinary and bowel problems can be distressing. There are ways to help manage these, such as with pelvic floor exercise, bladder training, and incontinence products. Other coping strategies include:
- Urinating every few hours
- Limiting caffeine intake
- Talking to your healthcare team about any medications or other interventions that may be helpful
Sexual dysfunction related to prostate cancer treatment can also be an unwelcome side effect. Helpful ways to cope with this can include:
- Having open communication with your partner
- Prioritizing activities for the day and taking breaks as needed
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Choosing The Best Treatment
It can be difficult to choose the best treatment for you. Your doctor and specialist nurse will explain the different treatment options and help you make a decision. The Predict Prostate tool can also help you decide between monitoring and radical treatment. We have more information about this tool further down this page.
A UK trial showed that there can be very little difference in survival between the treatments especially if you are diagnosed with early prostate cancer.
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The Steps Of The Robotic Prostatectomy
Robotic prostatectomy requires 5 small incisions, each about one-quarter of an inch in the lower abdomen, through which instruments are inserted. A sophisticated video camera is one of the instruments, which gives Dr. Samadi a three-dimensional, 10x magnified field of vision. The keyhole incisions drastically reduce blood loss and the camera provides unprecedented visual clarity. The result is a clear surgical field during the prostatectomy with nothing to obstruct Dr. Samadis view of the prostate and surrounding tissue.
Cameras are also used in laparoscopic prostatectomy, but they provide only a two-dimensional image and no magnification.
The prostate surgery follows these specific steps: