Health-related quality of life outcomes after robot-assisted and open radical cystectomy using a validated bladder-specific instrument: A multi-institutional study

Objective To evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQL) using validated bladder-specific Bladder Cancer Index (BCI) and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Body Image scale (BIS) between open radical cystectomy (ORC) and robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC). Methods This was a retrospective case series of all patients who underwent radical cystectomy. Patients were grouped based on surgical approach (open vs robot assisted) and diversion technique (extracorporeal vs intracorporeal). Patients completed BCI and BIS preoperatively and at standardized postoperative intervals (at least 2). The primary exposure variable was surgical approach. The primary outcome measure was difference in interval and baseline BCI and BIS scores in each group. The Fisher exact, Wilcoxon rank-sum, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for comparisons. Results Eighty-two and 100 patients underwent RARC and ORC, respectively. Compared with RARC, more patients undergoing ORC had an American Society of Anesthesiology score ≥3 (66% vs 45.1% RARC; P =.007) and shorter median operative time (350 vs 380 minutes; P =.009). Baseline urinary, bowel, sexual function, and body image were not different between both the groups (P = 1.0). Longitudinal postoperative analysis revealed better sexual function in ORC group (P =.047), with no significant differences between both the groups in the other 3 domains (P =.11,.58, and.93). Comparisons regarding diversion techniques showed similar findings in baseline and postoperative HRQL data, with no significant differences in the HRQL and body image domains. Conclusion RARC has comparable HRQL outcomes to ORC using validated BCI and BIS. The diversion technique used does not seem to affect patients' quality of life.