Objectives To compare positive surgical margins in both radical retropubic prostatectomies and laparoscopic surgery in two reference centres in Brazil. Materials and methods One hundred and seventy nine pathological studies from patients, who underwent radical prostatectomy due to prostate adenocarcinoma, 89 submitted to retropubic surgery and 90 to laparoscopic surgery, were analyzed. Inclusion criteriaPatients with PSA <= 15 ng/ml, and a Gleason score <= 7 at the prostate biopsy, maximum T2 clinical staging. Results There has been surgical margin compromising in 41.57% of the patients submitted to retropubic radical prostatectomy (RRP), 34.21% of which were at pT2 stage and 84.61% were at pT3 stage. In patients submitted to laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) positive surgical margin was found at 24.44% of the cases: 20.98% of which were at pT2 stage and 55.55% at pT3 stage. Conclusions In the analyzed samples, proportion of positive surgical margin was higher in RRP than in LRP (P = 0.023). A higher number of patients on a randomized prospective study would be necessary for a better comparison between the groups.393865869