A Clinician's Guide to Avoiding and Managing Common Complications During and After Robot-assisted Laparoscopic...

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) is on the advance globally, and it is essential for surgeons and patients to know the rates of perioperative complications.

To provide evidence-based clinical guidance on avoiding and managing common complications during and after RARP in the context of a comprehensive literature review.

In concordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis 2015 statement guidelines, a literature search of the PubMed database from August 1, 2011, to August 31, 2015, using the predefined search terms robot* AND radical prostatectomy, was conducted. The search resulted in 653 unique results that were subsequently uploaded to DistillerSR (Evidence Partners, Ottawa, Canada) for team-based screening and processing of references.

Overall, 37 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included. Median rate of overall complication was 12.6% (range: 3.1-42%). Most of the complications were minor (Clavien-Dindo grades 1 and 2). Grade 3 complications comprised the bulk of the major complications with a median rate of 2.7%; grade IV and V complications were exceedingly rare in all reports.

Despite continued adoption of the RARP technique globally, rates of overall complication remain low. Many of the complications experienced during and after RARP can be mitigated and prevented by experience and the implementation of safe techniques.

Despite continued adoption of the robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) technique globally, rates of overall and major complications remain low at 12.6% and 2.7%, respectively. Complications can be minimized and successfully managed using established techniques. RARP is a safe and reproducible technique.