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The following is a summary of “Bladder mucosal smoothness predicts early recovery of urinary continence after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy,” published in the January 2025 issue of Urology by Yu et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to develop a predictive model using preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters and bladder mucosal smoothness (BMS) grade for early urinary continence (UC) recovery after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP). 

They conducted a retrospective analysis of 203 patients who underwent LRP for prostate cancer from June 2016 to March 2020, with 83 experiencing urinary incontinence (UI) at the 3-month follow-up. Clinicopathological data, including prostate volume (PV), membranous urethra length (MUL), intravesical prostatic protrusion length (IPPL), and BMS grade, were collected via MRI. The sample was randomly divided into a training set (n = 142) and a validation set (n = 61). A model was developed to predict the risk of UI at 3 months post-LRP. 

The results showed significant differences in age group, clinical T stage, BMS grade, PV, IPPL, and MUL between UI and UC groups (all P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis identified 3 MRI-related predictors: BMS grade (1 odds ratio [OR] 0.17, 95% CI 0.11–0.66, P = 0.024; 2+3 OR 0.17, 95% CI 0.04–0.66, P = 0.011), IPPL (>5 mm OR 0.17, 95% CI 0.1–0.64, P = 0.004), and MUL (≥14 mm OR 6.41, 95% CI 2.72–15.09, P < 0.001). The model achieved an area under the curve of 0.900, with sensitivity of 0.800 and specificity of 0.816. 

Investigators confirmed that lower BMS grade predicted early recovery of urinary continence after LRP. A prediction model was validated for this purpose. 

Source: bmcurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12894-024-01682-7