Contemporary trends in radical prostatectomy and predictors of recovery of urinary continence in men aged over 70 years: comparisons between cohorts aged over 70 and less than 70 years.

We evaluated contemporary trends in radical prostatectomy (RP) in men aged >70 years and investigated associations of selected variables with recovery of urinary continence (UC) in two age groups: >70 and ≤ 70 years. A retrospective cohort of 2301 eligible patients attending our institution from 2004 to 2015 was reviewed. Patients were divided into two groups based on age at surgery (>70 years [n = 610] vs 70 years [n = 1691]) and four groups by year of surgery. Over the study period, the proportion of patients aged >70 years gradually increased up to 30.0%, and the rate of robot-assisted RP and neurovascular bundle (NVB) saving increased continually to 80.0% and 67.4% of older patients, respectively. Although the rate of recovery of UC within 12 months (3 months) in patients aged >70 years was lower than that in those aged ≤ 70 years (81.5% [52.6%] vs 88.6% [60.9%], respectively; both P < 0.001), the gap between age groups in the rate of recovery within 12 months narrowed from the second quarter of the study period. Among younger patients, age, robot-assisted RP, prostate volume, membranous urethral length (MUL), and NVB saving were predictors of recovery of UC within 3 or 12 months. In contrast, only age and MUL were predictors of recovery of UC within 3 and 12 months in patients aged >70 years. Therefore, unlike younger patients, only variables (age and MUL), possibly associated with the inherent function of the urinary sphincter, were predictors of recovery of UC in patients aged >70 years.

Asian journal of andrology. 2019 Jun 25 [Epub ahead of print]

Young Ju Lee, Jin-Woo Jung, Sangchul Lee, Sang Wook Lee, Jeong Hyun Kim, Sung Kyu Hong, Seok-Soo Byun, Sang Eun Lee, Seong Jin Jeong

Department of Urology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea., Department of Urology, Catholic Kwandong Univerisity International St. Mary's Hospital, Incheon 22711, Korea., Department of Urology, Kangwon National University School of Medicine, Chuncheon 24341, Korea.