Prostate Surgery Risks Greater for Elderly Men

Elderly men who have prostate cancer surgery face heightened risks of complications — and the majority have the procedure at hospitals with less-than-optimal outcomes, a U.S. study suggests.
Researchers found that of more than 115,000 U.S. men who had their prostates removed to treat cancer, some 2,100 were age 75 or older.
Just over two percent of those elderly men had a surgical complication — such as an accidental laceration to nerves, blood vessels or structures near the prostate — compared to about one percent of younger men.

It’s not surprising that elderly men would have higher complication risks, according to lead researcher Dr. Quoc-Dien Trinh, a urologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Those findings back up results from earlier studies, he told Reuters Health in an email.

“The novelty of this study is the finding that most elderly men undergo radical prostatectomy (prostate removal) at institutions where less-than-optimal outcomes are recorded,” Trinh added.

Source: REUTERS HEALTH NEWS