RADICAL PROSTATECTOMY: THREE GOALS TO SURGERY

There are three goals to surgery: Removing all of the tumor, preserving urinary control, and preserving sexual function. Sexual function is number three because first, in order of importance, it is number three, and second, if it is lost, there are many ways to restore it to normal. Men who are impotent after radical prostatectomy have normal sensation, normal sex drive, and can achieve a normal orgasm. The one element they may be lacking is the ability to have an erection sufficient for intercourse, and this is a problem that can be fixed.

With the reduction in side effects, and with better screening techniques to identify men with localized prostate cancer, radical prostatectomies are now performed more often than ever before, lie-cause of this, there’s a wealth of information about long-term results, and the news is good: At ten wars after surgery, 70 percent of patients have undetectable levels of PSA; only 4 percent develop local recurrence of cancer, and only – percent have distant metastases. Overall 92 percent of men have complete urinary control, and only 2 percent of men have long-term, troublesome problems ‘wearing more than one pad a day). Total urinary incontinence is rare (and, as in impotence, there are several ways to improve this).

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