Radical prostate cancer surgery is a complete removal of the prostate gland followed by anastomosis of the bladder and urethra, and urinary incontinence is a common postoperative complication that affects quality of life.
The main causes of urinary incontinence are:
- Patients may have preoperative urinary tract infections that are not completely controlled; or they may have preoperative urinary retention or cystostomy, failure to maintain sterile drainage and inadequate prophylactic antibiotic application; in addition, the longer the urinary catheter is left in place after surgery, the more likely it is that urinary tract infections will develop.
- As a result of tumor invasion, the pelvic floor muscles, nerves innervating the bladder, and urethral sphincter are inevitably damaged intraoperatively in order to completely remove the tumor, leading to the development of postoperative urinary incontinence.
- Patients have bladder dysfunction, including bladder forceps instability, decreased bladder contractility, and decreased compliance, which often imply bladder function degeneration.
In addition, there is a relationship between urinary incontinence and age, as the tone of the external urethral sphincter degenerates with age, and as age increases, the duration of the disease is relatively longer and bladder instability is relatively more severe.
Related articles: