Urinary continence outcomes of four years of follow-up and predictors of early and late urinary continence in patients undergoing robot-assisted radical prostatectomy

Abstract

Background: Although the wide application of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) in recent years, studies about long urinary continence were few. In this study, we aimed to examine the outcomes of continence rates (CRs) and determine the risk and protective factors of early and late urinary continence in patients with prostate cancer (PCa) undergoing RARP. Methods: This retrospective study included 650 patients treated with RARP who completed perioperative data and at least one year of follow-up from January 2009 to November 2017. We analyzed the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative parameters of the patients. Continence was defined as no pad use.CRs from one to 48 months postoperatively were examined. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the associations between the predictive factors and urinary continence in the early and late stages. Results: CRs of the patients at one, three, six, 12, 24, 36, and 48 months postoperatively were 40.62%, 60.92%, 71.38%, 78.77%, 79.96%, 79.51%, and 76.50%, respectively.There were no significant differences in CR from 12 to 48 months postoperatively (P=0.766). Logistic regression analysis proved that pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) was a significant risk factor of urinary continence at one month. Nerve sparing (NS) was a significant protective factor of urinary continence at one, three and six months. Age was an independent risk factor of urinary continence at six, 12 and 24 months. Other variables were not statistically significant predictors. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that CR gradually improved with time within one year and stabilized one year after the surgery. PLND, NS and age were significant determinants of continence in the early and late stages, respectively. These parameters could be used for preoperatively identifying patients at high risk for urinary incontinence and counselling about postoperative expectations for urinary continence. BackgroundDespite advances in surgical technique and methodology, postprostatectomy urinary incontinence (UI) remains a significant adverse event that leads to decreased quality of life [1,2]. It has been suggested that a number of factors are involved in recovery of urinary continence after radical prostatectomy (RP) [3,4]. Many patients have learned about this disease from the media. Hence, it is necessary to predict recovery of urinary continence early to minimize patients' concerns and