Influence of prostate weight, obesity and height on surgical outcomes of robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in Korean men

The purpose of this study was to determine if different body habitus, including prostate weight, body mass index (BMI) and height, are associated with surgical outcomes in patients undergoing robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RLRP). Between July 2005 and June 2007, 135 patients underwent RLRP by a single surgeon. Information was collected retrospectively on prostate weight, BMI and height. Surgical outcome was assessed by total operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL) and surgical margin as parameters of technical difficulty. When statistically analyzed, prostate size was significantly related to total operative time (P = 0.001) and EBL (P = 0.033). But prostate size was not significantly related to the surgical margin. Patient BMI and height did not appear to affect surgical outcomes. Despite a shift in body frames towards the western standard, most Asians still have shorter stature, lower BMI and smaller prostates. We have found from our experience that different body habitus is not significantly related to surgical outcomes of RLRP, and therefore, it seems promising to operate successfully on Asian patients. However, it is important to obtain long-term outcomes on a larger cohort of patients in order to confirm our findings.