Assessing Decision Regret in Patients with Same-Day Discharge Pathway After Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy.

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Surgical Oncology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Same-day discharge (SDD) pathways are increasingly adopted for surgeries, showing comparable complication rates and reduced costs.
• Outpatient robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) is emerging in high-volume centers, but patient perspectives on SDD protocols remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate patient perspectives and decisional regret following same-day discharge robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (SDD RARP).
• To identify factors associated with decisional regret in patients undergoing SDD RARP.

Main Methods:

• A questionnaire assessing patient satisfaction and decisional regret, including the Likert Decisional Regret Scale, was administered to patients post-RARP.
• Data analysis involved calculating median and mean scores, with a cutoff of 15 used to differentiate high and low regret rates.
• Statistical analysis compared patient characteristics and outcomes between high-regret and low-regret groups.

Main Results:

• A significant majority of patients (65.7%) reported no regret regarding the SDD RARP protocol, with 90.3% stating they would make the same decision.
• The median decisional regret score was low (0), with 80.6% of patients falling into the low-regret category.
• Patients in the high-regret group were more likely to have lower household incomes and experience more frequent postoperative pain.

Conclusions:

• The majority of patients experience low regret with SDD RARP, highlighting the potential benefits of this approach.
• Comprehensive patient education regarding the procedure and discharge process is vital for optimizing the patient experience and minimizing regret.
• Patient- and procedure-related factors may influence regret in a subset of patients undergoing SDD RARP.