Radical retropubic prostatectomy - The golden standard for prostate cancer?

Radical retropubic prostatectomy is still the most frequent surgical procedure for the treatment of localized prostate cancer. Improvements in the surgical techniques have contributed to significant reduction in operative time (median 69 min) and in rates of early and late complications. The surgical procedure and perioperative management are described, and results in 180 consecutive cases are presented. Severe postoperative complications did not occur. More than 95% of patients were completely dry within 6 months. Erectile function recovered in 71% of patients with bilateral preservation of the neurovascular bundles and in 34% of patients with unilateral nerve sparing. These results are in good agreement with data from the literature and confirm the outstanding role of the retropubic approach as the gold standard for radical prostatectomy,as well as the reproducibility of the result in community-based hospitals.