The morbidity of radical prostatectomy for multifocal stage I prostatic adenocarcinoma

During a 25-year period 33 patients with stage I multifocal prostatic adenocarcinoma underwent radical prostatectomy. Carcinoma was present in 81 per cent of the specimens. The operative mortality was 3 per cent. Pelvic recurrence, rectal injury and urethrovesical stricture each occurred in 9 per cent of the cases. Fifteen per cent of the patients were totally incontinent and 42 per cent had stress incontinence. One patient required combined retropubic and perineal approaches to remove the specimen. The safest interval between the first and the radical procedure was 6 weeks or more. The 5 and 10-year relative survival rates were 100 per cent. The best candidate for a radical prostatectomy after transurethral prostatic resection or suprapubic enucleation prostatectomy is one with a thick surgical capsule in whom the first procedure procedes the radical procedure by at least 6 weeks.