Summary:
Despite the wide spread in recent years of minimally invasive techniques in
urology, few comparative studies between open and robotic-assisted laparoscopic
radical prostatectomy are available. A review of the literature was performed,
to assess the available comparative studies of the two techniques.
With regard to the outcome perioperative robotic assisted radical prostatectomy
was more time consuming compared to the open radical prostatectomy, especially
in the early stages of the learning curve, but blood loss, transfusion rates,
catheterisation time, and duration of hospitalisation, all favoured RALP.
Regarding oncologic and functional outcomes, neither technique is superior to
the other. Further prospective, comparative studies are needed.
