Quality control of radical prostatectomy: a feasibility study

The aim of this study was to assess whether the quality of the surgical act could be an important prognostic factor for patients undergoing radical pr ostatectomy. This study also aims to investigate whether the surgical quali ty can be assessed by any means. Questionnaires were collected from 23 diff erent institutes including 232 radical prostatectomies (RPr) performed fur T1T2 prostate cancer. Blood loss, duration of surgery, margin status, posto perative prostate specific antigen (PSA) and urinary incontinence were anal ysed and correlated with the yearly number of RPr performed. The mean value s obtained for each parameter were very different in the various centres. T he outcome in terms of tumour control and incontinence could not be related to a. higher or lower number of RPr performed. Quality control of RPr is f easible on the basis of an analysis of a few parameters, such as surgical m argins; postoperative PSA and incontinence, that might recognise urologists that perform better or poorer than a proposed average. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.