Introduction: It is known that racial disparities exist for oncological outcomes following prostate cancer, with black patients having a higher mortality. There remains a paucity of specific data regarding functional outcomes and ethnicity in robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). The aim of this study was to investigate if racial disparity exists in outcomes following RARP at our institution, which covers a diverse population. Methods: This single site study utilised an institution approved (10128) prospective database of patients that underwent primary RARP from 2020-2021 with a minimum follow up of 12 months. All 5 surgeons perform a retropubic approach. Logistic regression was performed to investigate the continence rate at 3, 6 and 12 months for significance (p < 0.05). Continence is defined as 0 pads/24 hours. Further analysis was performed using propensity score matching for 12-month continence rate only. Results: In this study, 232 men were included of which 37% (86) were black. On average black men underwent surgery at a younger age (59 versus 63 year). However, no difference was observed between black and white men for mean prostate volume, ISUP grade or T stage. While difference in urinary continence recovery was not significant at 3 months (36% versus 52%) and 6 months (49% versus 63%), recovery of urinary continence recovery was inferior for black men at 12 months after surgery (57% versus 75%, p=0.01). After propensity score matching, 95 white and 95 black patients were evaluated. Mean age was 61 (44-67) and 59 (43-73) years, ISUP grade 2.55 and 2.6, MRI 39 (16-112) and 28 (12-112) cc for white and black patients, respectively. Continence rate at 12 months was 76% and 60% (p = 0.02), for respectively. Conclusions: The study demonstrates a racial disparity for return of urinary continence following robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy with black men having inferior recovery of urinary continence. Further work is required to investigate the reasons for the different outcome. SOURCE OF Funding: FM, MS and AS have received an unrestricted educational grant from Boston Scientific
