Prostate Cancer Surgery
Surgery is the final treatment to cure prostate cancer. Radical prostatectomy is mostly used to remove the prostate cancer from the gland. It is the most common surgical treatment for prostate tumor’s removal in United States. Mostly when the cancer has not spread outside the prostate the radical prostatectomy is performed.
In this operation, prostate gland is removed to cure the cancer. In some cases, some of the nearby tissues and seminal vesicles are also removed. More than 35% of the prostate cancer patients are treated through this type of operation. This surgery also has some side effects like impotence, local bleeding and anesthesia risks.
The complications in prostate cancer surgeries are being studied to make the operation clear in its results. The improved techniques in anesthesia and surgery are helpful to understand the complexities in the treatment of prostate cancer. Recently, nerve-sparing technique is proving very effective to reduce the risks of incontinence and impotence.
The risk of impotence can be cured with the help of Viagra tablets and alprostadil injections injecting into the penis. The various devices are used to stiff the penis. Incontinence also can be recovered through regular exercise and implantation of sphincter.
How does Radical Prostatectomy performed?
To perform radical prostatectomy surgeons need to use anesthesia. The patients are kept under the influence of general anesthesia during the surgery. Sometimes, spinal anesthesia also used to keep the patient asleep to perform the radical prostatectomy.
In this operation, some parts of the skin are removed from the lower abdomen. In some cases when cancer has spread into the lymph nodes, the surgeons need to remove the lymph nodes also. If the cancer cells are spread into one of the lymph nodes, it is difficult that it will be cured by any other treatment except surgery.
Another important aspect in this operation is not to injure the nerves' two bundles that control the erection in penis. The problem is when the cancer cells invade nerves and surgeon needs to remove the bundle of nerves.
This causes the reduced erection and problems in sexual intercourse. The problem gets worse when both the bundles of nerves are removed due to the prostate cancer cells' invasion in it. The patient will be impotent after removing the nerves. Hence, he needs to get help of medicines and other devices for the erection.
Fortunately, if the nerves are safe from the cancer cells and are not removed, the patient can be able to perform sexual activities. Generally, these nerves do not perform properly after the surgery for about one year. Because these nerves are handled during the surgery and this can affect their actions.
For prostatectomy mostly the patient need to donate his blood before the surgery and his blood is supplied to him during the surgery. The catheter also used to help the patient to urinate for at least two weeks. Thereafter, patient is asked to relieve urine by himself.
