A radical prostatectomy is a surgery resulting in the total removal of the prostate to treat prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer found in men after skin cancer and nearly 1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime.
The more traditional multi-port radical prostatectomy uses a route through the peritoneal space, where the bowel sits. Patients who undergo this procedure typically spend one night in the hospital.
A single-port radical prostatectomy allows the surgeon to access the area in front of the peritoneal space. By doing this, the potential morbidity is a lot lower and patients can go home the same day of the surgery.
The day of the procedure, the patient will arrive and wait in the pre-operative area. They will undergo general anesthesia combined with local anesthetics. After waking up, the patient is monitored for about three hours before they can go home. A catheter will drain urine for about a week.
A week after the procedure, the patient will return to have the catheter removed. The next follow up visit takes place three months later. Additional follow-up visits will decrease gradually in the years to follow.
There are no additional risks compared to a traditional robotic surgery, which has become the acceptable standard for prostate cancer surgery. More than 90% of these surgeries are robotic.
Patients with prostate cancer have two choices for treatment: radiation or surgery. Once a patient decides to undergo surgery, it is typically the only treatment necessary.
This depends on the patient’s prognosis. Prostate cancer is categorized as low risk, intermediate risk and high risk. For low risk patients, the recurrence rate is less than 5%.
Seek out the right surgeon with the appropriate expertise and experience for the best outcome. Just because a patient undergoes robotic surgery does not mean it is automatically better than a traditional surgery. Robotics is simply a technology and whoever is on the other end controlling the robot is going to dictate the outcome.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 203-785-2815.
