Department of Anesthesiology, Department of Urology, Department of Pathology, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels.
Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
The potential impact of intraoperative analgesics on oncological outcome after radical prostatectomy is debated. Some investigators have suggested that use of opioids favour relapse, whereas regional analgesia and NSAIDs improve oncological outcomes.
To evaluate the impact of intraoperative analgesia (epidural and intravenous) on the incidence of biochemical recurrence-free (BRF) survival.
This retrospective study includes 1111 consecutive retropubic radical prostatectomies (RRPs) for localised prostate cancer, performed between 1993 and 2006. Median follow-up was 38 months (interquartile range 16-69). BRF survival probabilities were compared with log-rank tests and the Cox regression model.
Epidural analgesia was used in 52% of patients, intravenous ketorolac in 25%, sufentanil in 97%, clonidine in 25% and ketamine in 16%. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that intravenous sufentanil significantly reduced BRF survival rate, hazard ratio 7.78 [95% confidence interval (CI) 5.79, 9.78), for extracapsular extension stage pT 2 or less, hazard ratio 0.44 (95% CI 0.12, 0.75), Gleason score at least 7, hazard ratio 1.96 (95% CI 1.65, 2.26), positive margin, hazard ratio 1.87 (95% CI 1.58, 2.02) and lymph node involvement, hazard ratio 1.77 (95% CI 1.27, 2.27, P > 0.05). In contrast, neither epidural analgesia nor other analgesics were associated with a statistically significant effect (P > 0.05).
This retrospective analysis suggests that intraoperative sufentanil administration is associated with an increased risk of cancer relapse after RRP, whereas epidural analgesia, with local anaesthetic and opioid, was not associated with a significant effect.
Written by:
Forget P, Tombal B, Scholtès JL, Nzimbala J, Meulders C, Legrand C, Van Cangh P, Cosyns JP, De Kock M. Are you the author?
Reference: Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2011 Sep 23. Epub ahead of print.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21946823
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