P0263 - Subcapsular orchiectomy - Are we desperate or hopeful?

Abstract

There are numbers of ill-fated men who suffer from prostate cancer. That is a severe psychological shock by itself. Some of those men develop bone metastases. This is another shock, far more forceful and frightening. Finally, an urologist comes to see these patients and delivers verdict: there are no other therapeutic options but subcapsular orchiectomy. This is an ultimate, devastating shock – at least it seems to be one. What happens to men who decide to go through it? What is their reaction? What doubts and questions do they struggle with? How do they cope with radical, drastic and dramatic nature of the procedure? How do they sustain brutal and aggressive surgery and irreversible, permanent and damaging consequences it carries with it? A lot of questions arise for both patients and doctors during both preoperative and postoperative periods. This presentation will offer some of these difficult questions to the viewers. It will also offer some of authors' thinking and practice for critical evaluation and assessment.