Impotence, Incontinence Risk Casts Doubt on High-Tech Prostate Surgery

(HealthDay News) -- Heightened risks for post-operative incontinence and impotence may outweigh any benefits from minimally invasive "keyhole" surgery for prostate cancer, a new study suggests.

The presumed good stemming from the robotic technique are being oversold to a public that is all too willing to believe, said Dr. Jim C. Hu, a genitourinary surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who led the study.

"Given the expense of the procedure and the hype around it, expectations are being raised that are too high," said Hu, whose team published the findings in the Oct. 14 Journal of the American Medical Association.

Men who have the prostate-removing surgery, which requires only a small incision and is helped along by robotic technology, do get out of the hospital faster than those who have the older operation, according to the report. Patients who underwent the more high-tech surgery spent an average of two days hospitalized rather than the three-days seen with traditional procedure. They were also less likely to require blood transfusions or suffer respiratory or surgical complications, researchers found. Read more...

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