ABSTRACT
The issue of comparative evaluation of oncological and functional outcomes of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) and radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) is widely discussed in the international literature. A key point in studying the oncological efficacy of both techniques is a comparative evaluation of positive surgical margin (PSM) rates as one of the main prognostic factors influencing the further course of prostate cancer. Available data so far are inconsistent, which prompted us to conduct our own research. A retrospective analysis was performed in two groups of patients who underwent RARP (n = 63) and RRP (n = 116) from January 2014 to April 2015. Despite a general trend towards lower PSM rates in RARP group compared to RRP group (12.7 and 21.6%, respectively, p = 0.09), no significant differences were found in the stratification of patients in both groups depending on the risk of prostate cancer progression and pathological stage. These data show the potential equality of the two methods regarding intraoperative control of resection margins.