A comparative analysis of complications after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy for men aged ≤69 and ≥70 years

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) is a popular treatment option for localized prostate cancer. Literature is lacking on the effect of advanced age on complication rates in men undergoing robotic prostatectomy. We performed a comparative analysis of complication rates for men ≤69 and ≥70 years undergoing RARP.

After IRB approval, we reviewed our initial 1000 consecutive patients who underwent RARP from 6/2002 to 6/2011 for intraoperative and postoperative complications, and we compared complication rates stratified by age ≤69 and ≥70 years. Complications were graded according to the Clavien-Dindo classification system. The Fischer's exact test was used to compare complication rates, and a p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

In our cohort, 868 men were ≤69 and 129 men were ≥70. Overall, the intraoperative and postoperative complication rates for the entire cohort were 0.90% and 10.2%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in individual postoperative complications between the two groups, however, the overall postoperative complications rates for men ≤69 and ≥70 were 9.4% and 15.4%, respectively (p-value=0.043). Major complication rates for men ≤69 and ≥70 were 6.7% (58) and 10.8% (14), respectively (p=0.10); minor complications rates were 2.8% (22) and 4.6% (6), respectively (p=0.25).

In our study, men ≥70 had a significantly higher overall complication rate after RARP compared with men ≤69 years; however, the individual, minor, and major complications were not different between the two groups. RARP is relatively safe in this older age group. Identifying complications and proposing insightful working solutions have decreased both minor and major complication rates after RARP.