Timing of Catheter Removal After Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy
Posted: Wednesday, July 25, 2018
For patients with prostate cancer who have undergone anatomic reconstruction and been treated with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, it may be safe to remove catheters as early as 3 days after the operation. This result from a prospective randomized trial was presented by Giuliana Lista, MD, of the Istituto Clinico Humanitas in Milan, Italy, on behalf of her colleagues at the 2018 American Urological Association Annual Meeting (Abstract MP05-18) and published in The Journal of Urology.
“Our findings may promote the adoption of this strategy in order to decrease hospital stay and patient discomfort,” the investigators concluded.
Dr. Lista and her team conducted a randomized trial from September 2016 to May 2017 at their institution in Milan. They studied urinary retention rates after catheter removal, functional outcomes via patient questionnaires, and early urinary continence rates. Approximately half of the patients (n = 77) underwent early catheter removal (on the third postoperative day; group A), and the other half (n = 76) underwent standard catheter removal (on the fifth postoperative day; group B).
At dismissal, the continence rate was 53.3% in group A and 46% in group B; at 1-month follow-up, the continence rate was 72% in group A and 76% in group B. However, urethral discomfort at dismissal was significantly higher for those who had standard catheter removal (P = .02). In addition, at 1-month uroflowmetry, there was a comparable median maximum flow rate between the groups, although group B experienced higher median voided volume.
