Urinary Continence after Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy: The Impact of Intravesical Prostatic Protrusion

To assess the impact of intravesical prostatic protrusion (IPP) on the outcomes of robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP). The medical records of 1094 men who underwent RALP from January 2007 to March 2013 were analyzed using our database to identify 641 additional men without IPP (non-IPP group). We excluded 259 patients who presented insufficient data and 14 patients who did not have an MRI image. We compared the following parameters: preoperative transrectal ultrasound, prostate specific antigen (PSA), clinicopathologic characteristics, intraoperative characteristics, postoperative oncologic characteristics, minor and major postoperative complications, and continence until postoperative 1 year. IPP grade was stratified by grade into three groups: Grade 1 (IPP≤5 mm), Grade 2 (5 mm10 mm). Of the 821 patients who underwent RALP, 557 (67.8%) experienced continence at postoperative 3 months, 681 (82.9%) at 6 months, and 757 (92.2%) at 12 months. According to IPP grade, there were significant differences in recovering full continence at postoperative 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months (p