Can we lower the rates of cystectomy complications by modifying risk factors? A review of the literature

INTRODUCTION: Radical cystectomy (RC), beyond its therapeutic effect, is associated with significant rates of complications, hospital readmissions and mortality. In recent years much research has been made in order to clarify the main reasons of these events. This article, based on a literature review, presents the impact of risk factors on RC complications and highlights possible modifications of these factors to reach better RC outcome. MATERIAL AND METHODS: PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar databases were searched using key-words to identify studies about risk factors and RC complications between 2010 and 2021. A total of 96 articles were retrieved and studied as full-text versions. The most significant data was targeted, analysed and categorized according to the article’s design. RESULTS: All the most valuable risk factors of RC complications were grouped in patient-related, treatment-related risk factors and subgrouped in nonmodifiable, modifiable and potentially modifiable categories. All the modifiable and potentially modifiable risk factors were found to have considerable value, as their adjustment lowers the rates of morbidity and mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Proper identification and adjustment of the risk factors present the possibility of better RC results. Although, in advanced disease and highly morbid cases, complications are not fully omit-table. Management of bladder cancer (BC) in high-volume centres using new technologies offers lower rates of complications. To sum up, rigorous interdisciplinary presurgical patient preparation should be implemented in BC management.