How long is prostatectomy surgery

We will probably stop using the IV and drain the day after surgery. You will be allowed to have ice chips and sips of water. Once you are ready, you should sit up and walk a few steps. Early walking is the key for fast recovery and return to bowel activity. It also improves blood circulation in the legs and prevents clot formation. The next morning, we will give you a light breakfast and a liquid diet. You cannot have solid food until you pass intestinal gas and have a bowel movement.

Most people do not pass intestinal gas for several days and do not have a bowel movement for three to four days. The best way to a speedy recovery is to start walking the hallways on the day after surgery. We expect you to walk a total of one mile, or 25 laps around the hospital wing not necessarily all at once. We will give you a breathing device called a spirometer to use once an hour. The cut is smaller than with the retropubic technique. This type of surgery often takes less time and causes less loss of blood.

However, it is harder for the surgeon to spare the nerves around the prostate or to remove nearby lymph nodes with this technique. The surgeon removes the prostate gland from the surrounding tissue. The seminal vesicles, two small fluid-filled sacs next to your prostate, are also removed. The surgeon will take care to cause as little damage as possible to the nerves and blood vessels. The surgeon reattaches the urethra to a part of the bladder called the bladder neck.

The urethra is the tube that carries urine from the bladder out through the penis. Your surgeon may also remove lymph nodes in the pelvis to check them for cancer. A drain, called a Jackson-Pratt drain, may be left in your belly to drain extra fluid after surgery. A tube catheter is left in your urethra and bladder to drain urine.

This will stay in place for a few days to a few weeks. Why the Procedure is Performed. Risks of this procedure are: Problems controlling urine urinary incontinence Erection problems impotence Injury to the rectum Urethral stricture tightening of the urinary opening due to scar tissue.

Before the Procedure. If you smoke, you should stop several weeks before the surgery. Your provider can help. During the weeks before your surgery: You may be asked to stop taking aspirin, ibuprofen Advil, Motrin , naproxen Aleve, Naprosyn , vitamin E, clopidogrel Plavix , warfarin Coumadin , and any other blood thinners or drugs that make it hard for your blood to clot. Ask which drugs you should still take on the day of your surgery. On the day before your surgery, drink only clear fluids.

Sometimes, you may be asked by your provider to take a special laxative on the day before your surgery. This will clean the contents out of your colon. On the day of your surgery: Do not eat or drink anything after midnight the night before your surgery. Take the drugs you have been told to take with a small sip of water. You'll want to arrange in advance for a ride home, because you won't be able to drive immediately following surgery.

You may not be able to work or do strenuous activities for several weeks after surgery. Ask your doctor how much recovery time you may need. Prostatectomy is usually done using general anesthesia, which means you're not awake during the procedure. Your doctor may also give you an antibiotic right before surgery to help prevent infection.

During an open prostatectomy, one large incision is made in your abdomen left. During a robotic prostatectomy, several smaller incisions are made in the abdomen right. Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Your surgeon sits at a remote-control console a short distance from you and the operating table and precisely controls the motion of the surgical instruments using two hand-and-finger control devices.

The console displays a magnified, 3D view of the surgical area that enables the surgeon to visualize the procedure in much greater detail than in traditional laparoscopic surgery. The robotic system allows smaller and more-precise incisions, which for some men promotes faster recovery than traditional open surgery does.

Just as with open retropubic surgery, the robotic approach enables nerve-sparing techniques that may preserve both sexual potency and continence in the appropriately selected person. Simple prostatectomy. At the start of the procedure, your doctor may insert a long, flexible viewing scope cystoscope through the tip of your penis to see inside the urethra, bladder and prostate area.

Your doctor will then insert a tube Foley catheter into the tip of your penis that extends into your bladder to drain urine during the procedure. The location of incisions will depend on what technique your doctor uses. If you also have a hernia or bladder problem, your doctor may use the surgery as an opportunity to repair it. Once your doctor has removed the part of your prostate causing symptoms, one to two temporary drain tubes may be inserted through punctures in your skin near the surgery site.

One tube goes directly into your bladder suprapubic tube , and the other tube goes into the area where the prostate was removed pelvic drain. Make sure you understand the post-surgery steps you need to take, and any restrictions such as driving or lifting heavy things:.

Robot-assisted prostatectomy can result in reduced pain and blood loss, reduced tissue trauma, a shorter hospital stay, and a quicker recovery period than a traditional prostatectomy. You usually can return to normal activity, with minor restrictions, around four weeks after surgery.

Simple prostatectomy provides long-term relief of urinary symptoms due to an enlarged prostate. Although it's the most invasive procedure to treat an enlarged prostate, serious complications are rare. Most men who have the procedure generally don't need any follow-up treatment for their BPH. Explore Mayo Clinic studies of tests and procedures to help prevent, detect, treat or manage conditions. Prostatectomy care at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products.

You may want to take a fibre supplement every day. If you have not had a bowel movement after a couple of days, ask your doctor about taking a mild laxative.

Your doctor will tell you if and when you can restart your medicines. You will also get instructions about taking any new medicines. If you take aspirin or some other blood thinner, ask your doctor if and when to start taking it again. Make sure that you understand exactly what your doctor wants you to do. Be safe with medicines. Take pain medicines exactly as directed. If the doctor gave you a prescription medicine for pain, take it as prescribed. If you are not taking a prescription pain medicine, ask your doctor if you can take an over-the-counter medicine.

If you think your pain medicine is making you sick to your stomach: Take your medicine after meals unless your doctor has told you not to. Ask your doctor for a different pain medicine. Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics when your urinary catheter is removed. Take them as directed. Do not stop taking them just because you feel better. You need to take the full course of antibiotics.

If you have strips of tape on the incisions, leave the tape on for a week or until it falls off. If you had stitches, your doctor will tell you when to come back to have them removed. Wash the area daily with warm water and pat it dry. Don't use hydrogen peroxide or alcohol, which can slow healing. You may cover the area with a gauze bandage if it weeps or rubs against clothing.

Change the bandage every day. Keep the area clean and dry. You will have a urinary catheter for 1 to 2 weeks. Your doctor or nurse will tell you how to care for it. Be sure the catheter is securely taped to your thigh and attached to the large drainage bag when you are at home.

Use the smaller leg bag only when you go out. A little urine leakage around the catheter is normal. You can place an incontinence pad in your underwear to absorb urine leaks.

Do not have an enema or use a rectal thermometer for 3 months, or until your doctor says it is okay. For example, call if: You passed out lost consciousness. You have chest pain, are short of breath, or cough up blood.