Longitudinal analysis of persistent stress urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy and time to definitive surgical treatment: Data from CaPSURE.

Abstract

347 Background: Persistent urinary incontinence (UI) after radical prostatectomy (RP) can have significant impact on quality of life, return to work and need for additional surgery. We aim to characterize the long-term cumulative incidence of incontinence procedure and report changes in urinary function (UF), urinary bother (UB), and work status from time of RP to 1 year postop. Methods: Participants treated by primary RP (1990-2020) for prostate cancer enrolled in the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor (CaPSURE) registry of 43 US urologic practices. UI was defined as self-reported use of >1 pad per day at 1 year after RP. UI procedure was tracked with CPT codes for urinary sling and artificial urinary sphincter (AUS). Participants reported work status (full-time paid, part-time paid, unpaid) and urinary scores (0-100) using UCLA Prostate Cancer Index. Associations of incontinence with changes in urinary scores (t-test) were assessed. Lifetable estimates and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to evaluate the risk of undergoing a UI surgical procedure, with model adjustment for pre-treatment age and urinary dysfunction, surgical characteristics, and post-surgical radiation. Results: Of 5742 men treated with primary RP, 641 (11%) reported UI as defined above at 1 year post-RP. Mean age was 61 years. A larger proportion of individuals with UI underwent open RP (93% vs 7%) and non-nerve sparing (62% vs 38%). At 1 year post RP, score decline in UF (-42.6 vs -11.7) and UB (-25.5 vs -2.7) were significantly worse in the incontinent group (all p<0.01). Cumulative incidence of incontinence procedures was 1.4% at 10 years with median time to UI-redirected procedure of 36 months (IQR 12, 74) after RP. Incontinence procedures comprised 52.4% AUS, 15.8% sling, 6.3% both, and 25.4% unspecified. UI (HR 10.6,95%CI 6.3-17.9), older age (per decade, HR 2.0, 95% CI1.3-3.0), history of voiding dysfunction (HR 6.1,95% CI 2.9-12.8) and receipt of radiation (adjuvant or salvage) (HR 2.4, 95% CI1.2-4.8)) were associated with undergoing incontinence procedure. Conclusions: UI at 1 year after RP may occur in up to 11% of surgical recipients. However, the rate of intervention remained low with 1.4% of the total cohort undergoing an incontinence procedure within 10 years. Incontinence affected urinary quality of life. Median time to UI procedure was 36 months. This information suggests that a significant number of men may have long – term, untreated incontinence and even those who undergo procedures to manage it may not have it in a timely fashion.