Prostate Cancer--Testing, Diagnosis, Surgery, Recovery (What to Expect) by Info For All

Author:Info For All
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: prostate, prostate cancer, prostate cancer books, prostate cancer for dummies, prostate biopsy, prostate exam
Publisher: PDF Summaries
Published: 2017-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

Laparoscopic Prostatectomy––––––––

Often, a radical prostatectomy is done using small keyhole incisions. A tube with a light and eyepiece is inserted and used to look inside the body.

The surgeon uses carbon dioxide gas to fill (inflate) the abdomen so they can see the prostate clearly.

A tiny video camera gives a magnified view of the prostate gland on a video screen. The prostate gland is cut away from surrounding tissues and put in a small bag before being removed through one of the keyhole size cuts in the abdomen.

With the advances in technology, this procedure is more and more robotically assisted. (Pictured above)

The main difference with this surgery is that you won't have a big wound in your abdomen afterwards. Instead you have several small cuts that heal fairly quickly. This is the procedure that I had.

Most studies have shown that laparoscopic surgery is as good at treating prostate cancer as open surgery. And that less blood is lost, and men have less pain and spend less time in hospital. I was in the hospital for approximately 24 hours.

Some men also recover and go back to normal activities more quickly than with open prostatectomy method.

Nerve sparing surgery:

Surgeons have developed a technique to try to prevent erection difficulties after the operation. This is called a nerve sparing prostatectomy.

There are two bundles of nerves that run alongside the prostate. During nerve sparing prostatectomy, the surgeon cuts prostate tissue carefully away from the nerve bundles without damaging them.

These nerves help control blood flow to the penis. They are very delicate. If the surgeon can remove the prostate without harming them, it is much more likely that you will still be able to have erections afterwards. But with nerve sparing surgery there is a higher risk of some cancer cells being left behind.

Nerve sparing surgery is only suitable for men with very early prostate cancers. The cancer must be completely inside the prostate (as it is for all total prostatectomy operations). And as far away from the bundles of nerves as possible.

If your cancer is growing too close to, or into the nerve bundles, then they have to be removed. If the surgeon leaves them behind, the cancer will not be cured by the operation.

Obviously... whether those nerves can be spared, or not, is a very big deal. The surgeon will let you know if he, or she, feels it is possible before the procedure is done. And they will tell pretty quickly after the surgery if it was successful, and they were able to save the nerves. In my case they were able to do so.

Side Effects:

With either type of prostatectomy the two of the most common side effects are problems with passing urine (incontinence) and inability to have an erection (impotence).

If you go back and look at the pictures of the prostate and the male anatomy you can see there is simply no way to remove the prostate without disrupting the urethra that carries the urine from the bladder and out the penis.

There doesn’t

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