[Surgical techniques in prostate cancer]

Diagnostic, therapeutic and palliative procedures in carcinoma of the prostate are discussed. Staging lymphadenectomy of pelvic lymph nodes has recently been performed via the laparoscope. Our results achieved with this procedure in, to date, 25 patients revealed lymph nodes metastasis in 50% of the cases, although the CT scan was unremarkable. Radical prostatovesiculectomy is accepted as the method of choice for the curative treatment of non-metastatic carcinoma of the prostate. Life expectancy following radical prostatectomy in tumor stage 2 or below, is similar to the general population of the same age. The palliative procedure of choice in prostatic carcinoma is plastic orchiectomy, in which the androgen-producing gonadal tissue is removed and testicular coat, together with the epididymi left in situ. With this approach, partial remission, rarely even complete remission, can be achieved in 80% of the patients. Information in the literature on prolongation of survival as a result of androgen deprivation is, however, contradictory.