A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing the Effects of Suturing Techniques for Vesico-urethral Anastomosis on One-year Voiding Function After Radical Prostatectomy

Radical prostatectomy (RP) is the most common curative treatment for prostate cancer (PCa).Vesicourethral anastomosis (VUA) is a crucial step and either a conventional interrupted (IS) or a running (RS) suture is employed during radical prostatectomy (RP). Certainly, both RS and IS have advantages and limitations. The metanalysis revealed that potential advantages for RS compared to IS, especially for short-term outcomes such as catheterization time, extravasation rate, and anastomotic suture time. There were no significant differences for long-term outcomes (continence, incidence of vesicourethral anastomotic stenosis). Generally, the exciting evidence suggests that CS should be preferred over IS. However, this should be followed only if it is technically feasible and appropriate regarding the surgical approach. Both techniques seem to be safe and appropriate for the VUA, and the technique should be chosen based on individual experience and preference.

The investigators hypothesized that RS and IS may have different effects on voiding function and flow rate, even if they do not cause an anastomotic stenosis requiring intervention. Furthermore, there is no existing literature that compares RS and IS in terms of voiding function.This article focuses on one year uroflowmetric voiding parameters, urinary function (UF), and UF related bother function, urinary continence recovery as well as other secondary outcomes, including surgical parameters, perioperative morbidity and oncological outcomes.