Diagnosing the Bladder as the Source of Pelvic Pain: Successful Treatment for Adults and Children

SUMMARY 

The key to successful therapy of interstitial cystitis (IC) is to correctly diagnose it. The significant majority of patients with IC have a dysfunctional bladder epithelium that allows urinary solutes (primarily potassium) to leak into the bladder wall, causing symptoms and tissue damage. Drugs that correct this dysfunction and suppress symptoms are important to achieve successful outcomes in patients. Today over 95% of females with IC are misdiagnosed as having gynecologic chronic pelvic pain, vulvodynia, vaginitis, endometriosis, overactive bladder or urinary tract infection. Men are misdiagnosed as having prostatitis. Often children are not diagnosed at all. Multimodal drug therapy may be required and can achieve successful resolution of IC in over 90% of patients. IC in children can be treated successfully with pentosan polysulfate.

KEYWORDS:

• bladder epithelium
• epithelial dysfunction
• glycosaminoglycans
• gynecologic chronic pelvic pain
• heparin
• idocaine
• interstitial cystitis
• pentosan polysulfate
• potassium sensitivity test
• prostatitis

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The author is a lecturer for Janssen Pharmaceuticals and an investor in Urigen Pharmaceuticals. He is the inventor of US Patent No. 7,414,039: Interstitial therapy for immediate symptom relief and chronic therapy in IC, assigned to the Regents of the University of California (UC) and licensed by UC San Diego to Urigen Pharmaceuticals.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The author is a lecturer for Janssen Pharmaceuticals and an investor in Urigen Pharmaceuticals. He is the inventor of US Patent No. 7,414,039: Interstitial therapy for immediate symptom relief and chronic therapy in IC, assigned to the Regents of the University of California (UC) and licensed by UC San Diego to Urigen Pharmaceuticals. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.