Radical Perineal Prostatectomy for Carcinoma

The most prevalent carcinoma in the male arises from the prostate gland and is responsible for 11.8% of all deaths from malignant disease annually in the United States.1Its incidence in men over 50 years of age has been variously estimated, but certainly it is no less than 14%. Its rapidity of growth and of spread are variable, so that one cannot forecast from the gross size of the primary focus the life expectancy of the person with or without treatment. There are cases on record of survivals of 15 or more years without benefit of treatment, but such durations of survival are admittedly rare. In an effort to cure some of these persons with carcinoma of the prostate gland the late Dr. Hugh H. Young in 1904 conceived and executed the idea of removing perineally in one intact specimen the entire prostate with its fibrous sheath, the bladder