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Is age an independent risk factor for medical complications following minimally invasive radical prostatectomy? An evaluation of contemporary American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement (ACS-NSQIP) data

Journal of Robotic Surgery volume 10, pages 343–346 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

While robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALRP) is an effective treatment for localized prostate cancer, the risk of complications in older patients can be a deterrent to surgery. We evaluated the rate of medical complications following RALRP in a national dataset of safety events, and assessed whether age is an independent risk factor for these complications. Retrospective analysis of patients undergoing RALRP between 2009 and 2012 in the prospectively maintained American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement (ACS-NSQIP) database was performed. Demographic and comorbid data were collated, medical complications occurring during the 30-day post-operative period were identified. We identified age-related comorbidities, and complications associated with these comorbidities. A binary logistic regression model with age and age-related comorbidities as predictors and specific complication as outcome, was used to evaluate whether age is an independent risk factor for these complications. 12,123 patients underwent RALRP between 2009 and 2012, with a mean age of 62 (22–92). Post-operative medical complications included urinary tract infection (UTI) (1.77 %), deep venous thrombosis (DVT) (0.67 %), pulmonary embolism (PE) (0.45 %), pneumonia (PNA) (0.27 %), myocardial infarction (MI) (0.12 %), and cerebrovascular accident (CVA) (0.01 %). Nine comorbidities were positively correlated with age (p < 0.05). Four medical complications were associated with these age-related comorbidities: MI, CVA, PNA, and UTI. On multivariate analysis, age was an independent risk factor for post-operative PNA (p < 0.05), but not for MI (p = 0.09), UTI (p = 0.3) or CVA (p = 0.2). Patient age was independently associated with post-operative pneumonia only. These data suggest that RALRP can be considered as a treatment option in selected older patients with minimal increased risk for post-operative complications.

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Affiliations

  1. Section of Urology, Department of Surgery, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH, 03756, USA

    Lawrence M. Dagrosa, Johann P. Ingimarsson & Elias S. Hyams

  2. Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Ivan P. Gorlov

  3. Department of Surgery, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA

    John H. Higgins

Authors
  1. Lawrence M. Dagrosa
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  2. Johann P. Ingimarsson
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  4. John H. Higgins
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  5. Elias S. Hyams
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Correspondence to Lawrence M. Dagrosa.

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Conflict of interest

Lawrence M. Dagrosa, Johann P. Ingimarsson, Ivan P. Gorlov, John H. Higgins and Elias S. Hyams declare that they have no conflict of interest report.

Ethical standards

The study was deemed exempt from institutional review board by the Dartmouth College Committee for Protection of Human Subjects due to the de-identified nature of the ACS-NSQIP data.

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Dagrosa, L.M., Ingimarsson, J.P., Gorlov, I.P. et al. Is age an independent risk factor for medical complications following minimally invasive radical prostatectomy? An evaluation of contemporary American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement (ACS-NSQIP) data. J Robotic Surg 10, 343–346 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-016-0605-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-016-0605-9

Keywords

  • Prostate cancer
  • Robotic prostatectomy
  • Age
  • Complications