{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,2]],"date-time":"2026-03-02T12:17:52Z","timestamp":1772453872388,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,26]],"date-time":"2025-09-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758844800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Surg."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Prostate cancer is a common malignant tumor in the male urogenital system, and laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) is the standard surgical procedure for early-stage patients. However, postoperative urinary incontinence remains a major complication. The membranous urethra and its surrounding sphincters play a critical role in urinary continence, but the impact of their preserved length on postoperative recovery of urinary continence function remains unclear.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title><jats:p>To investigate the effect of the preserved length of the membranous urethra during LRP on early and long-term recovery of urinary continence function in patients.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>A retrospective analysis was conducted on 160 patients who underwent LRP from March 2023 to June 2024. The patients were divided into a long-segment group (preserved length \u226515\u2005mm, 90 cases) and a short-segment group (preserved length &amp;lt;15\u2005mm, 70 cases) based on the preserved length of the membranous urethra. The International Continence Society criteria were used to evaluate the urinary continence recovery rate (\u22641 pad\/day) at 1, 3, 12, and 24 months postoperatively, and differences between the two groups were compared.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Baseline characteristics were comparable between long-segment (\u226515\u2005mm, <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u200990) and short-segment (&amp;lt;15\u2005mm, <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u200970) groups (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009&amp;gt;\u20090.05). The long-segment group demonstrated significantly superior urinary continence recovery at all time points (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009&amp;lt;\u20090.05): At 1 month, pad-based recovery (38.9% vs. 25.7%) and PGI-I improvement (41.1% vs. 28.6%); at 3 months (61.1% vs. 42.9%; 65.6% vs. 47.1%); at 12 months (77.8% vs. 64.3%; 80.0% vs. 67.1%); and at 24 months (88.9% vs. 78.6%; 91.1% vs. 81.4%). Notably, patients receiving bilateral nerve-sparing with long urethral preservation achieved optimal outcomes (94.3% pad-based recovery; 96.2% PGI-I improvement), significantly surpassing other nerve-sparing approaches (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\u2009&amp;lt;\u20090.05).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Preserving the length of the membranous urethra \u226515\u2005mm during LRP can significantly promote the recovery of early and long-term urinary continence function, providing a basis for precise surgical operations in clinical practice. Future studies with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods are needed for validation.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fsurg.2025.1645617","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,26]],"date-time":"2025-09-26T05:34:13Z","timestamp":1758864853000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Study on the impact of the reserved length of the membranous urethra during laparoscopic radical prostatectomy on the recovery of urinary control function in 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