The prostate gland is rather like a doughnut, which is located at the opening of the bladder between the bladder and the muscle which controls continence and the penis. The seminal vesicles are two glands, which store fluid at the base of the prostate gland underneath the opening of the bladder. Both of the two seminal vesicles and the whole of the prostate gland is removed in this operation and the bladder is joined back onto the urethra to enable urine to drain out normally down through the penis. The possibility of side effect such as those that occur with any type of surgery - bleeding, wound infection, the possibility of blood clots forming and the general consequences of the side effects of anaesthesia. The incontinence may be of the urgent type in that the patient may leak before he gets to the toilet or it may be stress incontinence which means leakage when he coughs or sneezes, for example.
Continuous incontinence is unusual.
There is occasionally some narrowing at the place of the join of the bladder to the urethra and that may be called a bladder neck stenosis or urethral stricture. It is possible during this type of surgery to damage the bowel because of the proximity of the tumour. The incidence of that is low and is usually detected at the time of surgery and repaired at that time. Reduced potency may occur because of the effects of either the tumour or the surgery upon the nerves and blood vessels which travel alongside the prostate to the penis. They may not recover and it may be necessary that if the patient wishes to regain potency to seek alternative treatments .