Assessment of the continence status and patients' satisfaction after retropubic radical prostatectomy: a...

The aim of this study was to assess the continence status and patients' satisfaction after retropubic radical prostatectomy by a self-administered questionnaire composed of 12 questions.

In total, 143 patients who underwent RRP operation at our department from 1992 to 2000 with a minimum 6 months of follow-up were assessed. Seventy two patients participated in the study. The continence status was classified as follows; patients who did not leak were considered as "continent", those who had leakage that occurred less frequent than or equal to once a day were regarded as "socially continent", and those who had more than once a day leakage were regarded as "incontinent". The correlation between urinary leakage, patients' satisfaction and pre-operative, peri-operative and post-operative factors were investigated. Univariate and multivariate analyses were done using Fisher's exact, chi-square, Student's-t and logistic regression tests.

The mean age of patients at surgery was 63.9 years (49-76) with a follow-up period of 37.1 months (6-97). Of these patients, 44% were continent, 48% were socially continent, 8% were incontinent. A total of 64 of 72 patients (89%) were satisfied with their final continence status, and 63 (87%) patients accepted to undergo the same surgery again if it is indicated. Pre-, peri- and post-operative factors did not influence the urinary leakage rates. Patients with nocturnal leakage, urgency, decreased urinary flow and patients who use pad (-s) were significantly less satisfied on univariate analysis, while only nocturnal leakage had a significant impact on patients' satisfaction on multivariate analysis.

Urinary leakage and patients' satisfaction rates after RRP were 56% and 89%, respectively. None of the factors could predict the post-operative continence status. When evaluating the patients' satisfaction, only nocturnal leakage was found to have an adverse affect on multivariate analyses.