Key clinical point: A significant patient- and surgeon-level variation in sexual function recovery is seen over 2 years after radical prostatectomy.
Major finding: At 24-month follow-up, 24% of patients recovered sexual function. Across 12 surgeons, patients achieving sexual function recovery ranged from 3% to 44%. At the surgeon level, the Pearson correlation coefficient between case volume and mean Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite-26 sexual domain score was 0.08 (95% CI, −0.52 to 0.62). The Spearman correlation coefficient between case volume and the proportion of patients achieving sexual function recovery was −0.16 (95% CI, −0.67 to 0.46).
Study details: A prospective cohort of 1,426 patients with prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy between May 2014 and August 2019.
Disclosures: This work was supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and National Institutes of Health. The authors received financial/nonfinancial support and/or served as journal editors without compensation outside this work.
Source: Agochukwu-Mmonu N et al. JAMA Surg. 2021 Dec 1. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2021.6215 .