Evaluating urinary continence and preoperative predictors of urinary continence after robot assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

Purpose: We evaluated urinary continence using a validated questionnaire in aseries of consecutive patients who underwent robot assisted laparoscopic radicalprostatectomy, and identified the preoperative predictors of the return to urinarycontinence.Materials and Methods: The clinical records of 308 consecutive patients whounderwent robot assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy for clinically localizedprostate cancer at a tertiary academic center were prospectively collected.All patients were continent before surgery. Urinary continence was evaluatedusing the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-UrinaryIncontinence Short Form instrument. All of the patients reporting no leak inresponse to the question, “How often do you leak urine?” were defined as continent.Results: A total of 273 patients (90%) were continent 12 months after robotassisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. Continent patients were significantlyyounger (61.4 6.4 vs 64.1 6.1 years, p 0.02) than those who wereincontinent. On univariable regression analysis patient age at surgery (OR 1.075,p 0.024) and Charlson comorbidity index (OR 1.671, p 0.007) were significantlyassociated with 12-month continence status. On multivariable analysisage (OR 1.076, p 0.027) and Charlson comorbidity index (OR 1.635, p 0.009)were independent predictors of continence rates.Conclusions: Using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence Short Form 90% of patients undergoing robot assistedlaparoscopic radical prostatectomy reported no urine leak 12 months aftersurgery. Patient age at surgery and Charlson comorbidity index were independentpredictors of the return to urinary continence, whereas notably no variablerelated to prostate cancer was significantly correlated with urinary continence.