SUFU 2008 Winter Meeting Pelvic Organ Neurophysiology: Implications For Chronic Pelvic Pain And The Overlap Of Chronic Pelvic Pain

Main Category: Pain / Anesthetics
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 08 Mar 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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UroToday.com - Chronic pelvic pain is a prevalent and costly problem affecting an estimated 15% of men and women in the United States and costing greater than $2 billion annually. Dr. MIchael Pezzone presented an informative overview of the current theories regarding chronic pelvic pain that prompted the recognition of the importance of a multidisciplinary strategy for this difficult condition.

Convergent and overlapping afferent (sensory) pathways are necessary for integration and regulation of sexual, bladder, and bowel function, and afferent activation by one component can affect the efferent output to another. Acute insult to the bowel or bladder can result in alteration of mechanoreceptive and chemoreceptive properties and cross sensitization from one pathway to another. Over the long term, chronic irritation can result in changes in the end organ that can lead to chronic pelvic pain. The realization of this pathophysiology and the complex neural interaction in the pelvis is the basis for exploration of new multidisciplinary approaches to chronic pain syndromes.

Presented by: Michael Pezzone, MD, PhD at the Society for Urodynamics and Female Urology (SUFU) 2008 Winter Meeting - February 28 - March 2, 2008 Miami, Florida, USA

Reported for UroToday.com by Kathleen C. Kobashi, MD, Head, Section of Urology and Renal Transplantation, Virginia Mason Medical Center

Co-Director Continence Center, Virginia Mason Medical Center Clinical Associate Professor of Urology, University of Washington

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