Below the Belt Award

Removal of the bladder as treatment for bladder cancer may be necessary to cure the disease. However this remains one of the most major procedures performed by urologic surgeons and carries significant risks for patients. Despite this, there is a currently a lack of quality research to identify ways to improve patient outcomes. The purpose of this study is to set up Australia’s first national secure online database to allow investigators to analyse treatments currently used by urologists and their associated outcomes and complications after bladder removal. This information will then be used to formulate future randomised controlled trials. Radical cystectomy involves significant risk of morbidity and mortality. The risk of any complication is significantly more than 50% and recent reported mortality ranges between less than 1% and more than 8%.[ref] Specific complications after radical cystectomy from previous studies include infection (25%)4, intestinal obstruction (23%)4, wound complications (15%)4, thromboembolic events (8%)4, intestinal anastomotic leakage (3%)2. Other complications include significant bleeding, lymphocoele formation, and erectile and sexual dysfunction [ref]. The primary objective is to create a bi-national (Australia and New Zealand) prospective clinical audit to collect data on outcomes after radical cystectomy surgery and secondarily to hypothesise from acquired data whether specific interventions may achieve improved peri-operative care and outcomes for patients.