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Incontinence After Prostate Surgery
A Guide to Recovery and Management
By Kelly Burgess
Prostate cancer and prostate enlargement share many of the same symptoms, so it's important to see your doctor if you experience any changes in your urinary habits.
While surgery is the most common treatment for both benign prostate conditions and prostate cancer, the procedures are different. In surgery for prostate cancer, the prostate gland is either partially or totally removed. Surgery to relieve an enlargement, however, generally does not require removal of the prostate gland, only the enlarged tissue. Even though the surgeries for both conditions take different approaches, the recovery process is remarkably similar. With either procedure, Dr. Moul says the patient typically spends three to 10 days in the hospital, with a further recovery period of at least several weeks.
Because both surgeries involve significant trauma to the urethra, bladder weakness may result. Dr. Charles Myers, founder of the American Institute for Diseases of the Prostate and a prostate cancer survivor, says Medicare statistics indicate that one-fifth of men experience incontinence after prostate surgery. Of that number, slightly less than 10 percent remain incontinent one year after surgery.
Lingering incontinence is caused by the removal of a part of the bladder that controls urine flow along with the diseased prostate. However, men may be able to train the remaining muscles in th bladder to take over that function, but the transition can take up to six months.
