Surgery to remove your prostate gland can be done in a number of ways. Discuss your options with your surgeon.
Robot-assisted prostatectomy (robotic surgery)
The urologist uses a computer and robotic arms to help to remove your prostate through small cuts in your tummy area (abdomen).
You will be in hospital for a much shorter time with robotic surgery than with open surgery. There is also a lower risk of needing a blood transfusion or getting a wound infection.
The long-term side-effects of this type of operation are the same as for open surgery.
Open prostatectomy
Open surgery means removing your prostate through a cut in the wall of your tummy (abdomen) between your belly button and pubic bone.
Nerve-sparing surgery
Sometimes having to remove all the cancer cells means that the 2 bundles of nerves attached to the prostate cannot be preserved. These nerves control erections. If the nerves are not preserved or are damaged during the operation, it will cause problems with getting or keeping an erection.
If the cancer has spread too close to the nerves, your surgeon may need to remove one or both bundles of nerves.
In some cases, it is possible to spare nerves on one side of your prostate. This is called a nerve-sparing prostatectomy. It gives you a better chance of regaining erections than if you had both of the nerves removed, but not as good as if you had both bundles of nerves spared.
Ask your surgeon if nerve-sparing surgery is possible for you. Very often surgeons can’t tell if they can do a nerve-sparing operation until the operation has started.
