Are the authors referring to 'prostatectomy' or 'radical prostatectomy'? While the former refers to enucleation or resection (TURP) of a prostatic adenomas usually offered for benign disease, the latter describes complete extirpation of the prostate gland, usually done for very early prostate cancer. In Nigeria patients present almost always with late disease not amenable to radical prostatectomy. Experience in the procedure is thus not common place among urologists practicing locally. Again, the cohort of patients being reported on (very elderly) are unlikely candidates for radical prostatectomy. Suitable patients are the relatively younger prostate cancer patients who are wont to have the aggressive form of the disease and because of their age, would be fit for such radical surgery. Left alone, they also are likely to live long enough to die from the disease rather than live with it and die of something else (a likely scenario with their much older fellows). For these reasons, I suspect the authors may have been referring to prostatectomy rather than radical prostatectomy. They should clarify this. Otherwise, a good paper.

• competing interests: None
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• References: 1. Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2007 Mar; Vol. 14(1):50-3 2. African Journal of Urology, 2008; 14(2): 75-80