Urinary Bother as a Predictor of Postsurgical Changes in Urinary Function After Robotic Radical Prostatectomy

Objective To characterize changes in indices of urinary function in prostatectomy patients with presurgical voiding symptoms. Methods A retrospective analysis of our prostate cancer database identified robot-assisted radical prostatectomy patients between April 2007 and December 2011 who completed pre- and postsurgical (24 months) Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite-26 surveys. Gleason score, margins, D'Amico risk, prostate-specific antigen, radiotherapy, and nerve-sparing status were tabulated. Survey questions addressed urinary irritation/obstruction, incontinence, and overall bother. Responses were averaged to calculate a urinary sum (US) score. Patients were stratified according to the severity of their baseline urinary bother (UB), and changes in urinary indices determined at 24 months. Results A total of 737 patients were included. Postsurgical improvement in urinary obstruction, bother, and sum score was related to baseline UB ( P