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Prostate Cancer Surgery Complications?

October 14, 2009

Allan Brehme had prostate cancer surgery eight months ago.

"Everything is basically back to normal," he said.

He hasn't had any complications from his minimally invasive procedure, but a new study shows that's not always the case.

"The continence and sexual function was not as good as open surgery," said Dr. David Samadi of Mount Sinai Medical Center.

A study of thousands of prostate patients shows that 5 percent of those who had minimally invasive surgery ended up with incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Only 2 percent of those who had traditional prostate surgery had the same problems.

Less invasive procedures, including laparoscopic and robotic surgeries, have grown more popular because there are fewer surgical complications and quicker recovery times.

Robotic prostate surgeries alone have increased nearly 40 percent in recent years. But doctors, including the author of the study, are concerned that might be the problem-- more doctors are performing robotic surgeries before they are experts with the new technology and that's why there are more complications.

"It does take a long time to master this technology," said Dr. Jim Hu, of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

In fact, most doctors take only two days of robotic training.

"My wife and I did our own research, did a lot of research," Brehme said.

Brehme chose Dr. Samadi because he'd already done nearly 2,000 robotic procedures.

They both believe that choosing the surgeon is just as important as the technology.

That study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

CBS News