Complications, urinary continence, and oncologic outcomes of laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: single-surgeon...

Objective. The aim of the present study was to evaluate initial learning curves of laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) with regard to complications, urinary continence, and oncologic outcome. Materials and Methods. We retrospectively reviewed 100 consecutive patients with clinically localized prostate cancer. All 100 patients underwent LRP performed by the same urologist at one institution.

Mean operating time (208.4 ± 48.6 min), estimated blood loss (495.8 ± 436.5 mL), allogeneic blood transfusion rate (0%), and intraoperative complications diminished with surgical experience. Positive margin rate varied greatly among pathological stage (positive margin rates: pT2 = 20.5%; pT3 = 63.0%). A trend towards reduction of positive surgical margins in pT2 cases was apparent with increasing experience. Intraoperative and early complications occurred in 2.0% of patients. In all patients, 85.9% used none or no more than one pad per 24 h at 6 months postoperatively. Prostate-specific antigen recurrence was seen in only 2 patients. Conclusions. In the present series of 100 patients, our retrospective evaluation confirms that LRP provides satisfactory results.