title: Early assessment of patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life following robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.
abstract: Impairments in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and patient satisfaction after definitive treatment for localized prostate cancer can be significant. We assessed patient satisfaction associated with HRQOL following robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). Prostate cancer-specific HRQOL was assessed using 50 items from the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite and postoperative satisfaction parameters. According to the satisfaction level, 218 consecutive patients were divided into the following three groups: group 1, extremely satisfied (n = 140); group 2, satisfied (n = 54); and group 3, uncertain, dissatisfied and extremely dissatisfied patients (n = 24). Peri-operative characteristics were not significantly different among the three groups. When the mean domain-specific HRQOL subscale scores were compared, there were no statistical differences in urinary and sexual function between groups 1 and 2. Patients in group 2 were more bothered by these domains than those in group 1. Group 3 had significantly lower scores in bowel and hormonal bother than the other groups and significantly lower scores in bowel function when compared to group 1. In daily life related to HRQOL, satisfaction is mainly determined by personal perception and interpretation rather than the objective status of urinary and sexual function. More interestingly, patients in the dissatisfied group were more likely to have bladder and bowel storage symptoms. Additional work is necessary to identify the factors associated with increased risk of pelvic organ storage symptoms following RARP.
authors.affiliation: Section of Urologic Oncology and Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 195 Little Albany Street, #4560, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA.
authors.forename: Eun Yong
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Section of Urologic Oncology and Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 195 Little Albany Street, #4560, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA.
authors.forename: Jeongyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Section of Urologic Oncology and Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 195 Little Albany Street, #4560, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA.|Department of Urology, Inje University Medical School, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Dong Il
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Section of Urologic Oncology and Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 195 Little Albany Street, #4560, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Section of Urologic Oncology and Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 195 Little Albany Street, #4560, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Section of Urologic Oncology and Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 195 Little Albany Street, #4560, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA. kimiy@umdnj.edu.
authors.forename: Isaac Yi
authors.initials: IY
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: EPIC; Health-related quality of life; Prostate cancer; Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy; Satisfaction