ABSTRACT
Over the past two decades, open nerve-sparing radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) has become widely established worldwide as a safe and effective treatment for localized prostate cancer. Recent data from Scandinavia have confi rmed that, compared with watchful waiting, radical prostatectomy (RP) reduces the risk of developing metastases by around 50% and improves the chances of prostate cancer specifi c and overall survival.1 Not withstanding this, open RRP is still a fairly formidable operation to perform, and even more so to undergo. The lower abdominal incision is associated with signifi cant postoperative discomfort, many patients fi nd the period of up to 3 weeks postoperative catheterization tiresome, and convalescence is often slow.
