AUA 2019: Higher Free Testosterone Predicts Faster Potency Recovery after Robot Assisted Radical Prostatectomy

Chicago, IL (UroToday.com) Dr. El-khatib outlines one of the many complications following robot-assisted radical prostatectomy: sexual function. In current literature, it is widely accepted that low levels of testosterone cause sexual dysfunction. The main goal of this study is to test the correlation between reduced potency recovering and low preoperative free testosterone (FT) in men after surgery.

The inclusion criteria are a preoperative IIEF-5 of 22-25, preoperative FT value, and IIEF5 at 3 and 15 months post-surgery. The cohort was then divided into three categories: FT<5.1, 5.1≤FT≤7, and FT>7. FT was graphed based on the percentage of potency over postoperative (3, 9, and 15) months. Dr. El-khatib highlighted that at 15 months patients with FT<5.1, 5.1≤FT≤7, and FT>7, had 81.3%, 88.0%, 90.3% potency respectively.

Dr. El-khatib concludes FT levels less than 5.1ng/dL had a decreased return at all of the varying time points. The recommendation is to consider these certain patients for testosterone therapy.

Presented by: Farouk M. El-khatib, MD, University of California, Irvine, Department of Urology
Co-authors: Farouk M. El-khatib, Linda Huynh, Maxwell Towe, Faysal A Yafi, Thomas Ahlering
Affiliation: University of California, Irvine

Written by: Joshua Tran, (Department of Urology, University of California-Irvine) at the American Urological Association's 2019 Annual Meeting (AUA 2019), May 3 – 6, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois