Prostate Cancer Treatment Home > Prostate Surgery

Exploring the Risks and
Rewards of Prostate Surgery

Each year nearly 200,000 thousand American men must make a critical decision: prostate surgery, radiation therapy or opting for watchful waiting. Most are trying to ferret out the option among many options that gives them the most peace of mind with the least problems.

Craving peace of mind when diagnosed with prostate cancer is natural but actually pretty much asking for the impossible. But something close can be achieved with prostate surgery. Prostate surgery as your prostate cancer treatment of choice offers you a 90% chance of being cancer free 10 years or so later.

Prostate Surgery Defined: Prostate surgery is the removal of a part or all of the prostate gland to remove the cancerous cells it contains. This nerve sparing surgery can drastically reduce the risk of incontinence and impotence generally associated with conventional prostate treatments.

What to expect with the so called radical prostatectomy approach:

• Before the scheduled operation, if the doctor suspects spread of cancer then laparoscopic biopsy of lymph nodes will be done.

• If the cancer is not found in the biopsy samples then the prostatectomy goes as per plan else it may be discontinued.

• As the operation is quite lengthy general or spinal anesthesia is given.

• Then a cut through the abdomen or perineal area is done to reach the prostate. The operation can also be done laproscopically, often involving robotics which is minimally invasive compared to traditional open prostatectomy. It just requires tiny incisions on the abdomen to reach the tumor typically with less bleeding

• Whichever method you choose you need to remain in the hospital for a minimum of 5-7 days.

Who Best For: Radial prostatectomy or prostate surgery is best recommended for men in stages A and B of prostate cancer. Once the cancer has spread to other parts of the body total prostate gland removal seldom does any good unfortunately.

Pros:
• When done by an experienced urologist this can reduce complications of bladder like urine leakage and impotence.

• For localized prostate cancer surgery offers hope of complete removal of the cancer. It has also proven to reduce deaths from the disease.

Cons:
• There are 10% chances of urinary leakage and 20-70% chances of impotence after surgery.

• The hospital stay after prostate surgery is 5-7 days and complete recovery can only be expected after 3-4 weeks.

• There are also rare complications like narrowing of the urethra, damage to rectum and infections generally associated with surgery.

• This treatment does not work if the cancer has spread to lymph nodes in pelvis or other parts of the body.

Sum it up: The success of the operation can all be put down to experience of the surgeon. When done by an urologist with considerable experience the risk of side effects can be quite low.

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