Comparison of longitudinal health-related quality-of-life outcomes between anterior and posterior surgical approaches to robot-assisted radical prostatectomy

AbstractIncreasingly, studies have explored health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) outcomes after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). Nevertheless, no study has compared differences between anterior and posterior surgical approaches. The aim of this study is to assess differences of HRQOL following these two surgical approaches. From January 2012 to September 2017, 653 patients underwent RARP at our institution. We included patients who underwent operations by three experienced surgeons with interchangeability of role as console operator, and who could evaluate preoperatively the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) score. Patients treated with neoadjuvant hormonal therapy were excluded. HRQOL was assessed using the EPIC score, and the questionnaire was administered at 6 timepoints: the baseline survey was conducted within 3  months before the surgery, and follow-up surveys were conducted at 2 weeks, 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. We defined the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) as half the standard deviation of the baseline score for each domain. A total of 201 patients were included in this retr ospective study. Of these, 146 patients underwent RARP using an anterior surgical approach and 55 patients underwent a posterior approach. The clinical characteristics had no significant differences except for median prostate volume between the anterior and posterior groups (27 ml vs 29 ml,p = 0.049). There were no significant differe...
Source: Journal of Robotic Surgery - Category: Surgery Source Type: research