Relationship between recovery of urinary continence after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and preoperative/postoperative membranous urethral length

To evaluate the relationship between recovery of urinary continence after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) and preoperative/postoperative membranous urethral length (MUL) on magnetic resonance imaging. We retrospectively analyzed 69 patients with pathologic confirmed prostate carcinoma who underwent laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. Preoperative MUL was defined as the distance from the apex of prostate to the level of the urethra at penile bulb on the coronal image. Postoperative MUL was defined as the distance from the bladder neck to the level of the urethra at the penile bulb on the coronal image. MUL-retained rate was defined as the percentage of postoperative MUL to preoperative MUL. All patients received extraperitoneal LRP. Patients reported freedom from using safety pad (0 pad/d) were defined as urinary continence. Multivariate Logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent predictors of early continence recovery after LRP. Kaplan-Meier analyses and log-rank test were used to