What are cystitis, interstitial cystitis (IC), urinary tract infection (UTI)
and overactive bladder?
Urology. 2008 Jan;71(1):62-6.
Patient perceived outcomes of treatments used
for interstitial cystitis.
Hill JR, Isom-Batz G, Panagopoulos G, Zakariasen
K, Kavaler E.
Department of Urology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New
York, New York 10021, USA. rebhill27@hotmail.com
Objectives:
Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a
challenging disease complex. Patients'
perception of their outcomes after different
treatment modalities may be the best measure of
therapeutic efficacy. Our study focused on a
large group of women with a diagnosis of IC who
reported on perceived outcomes after undergoing
invasive and pharmaceutical treatments for their
disease.
Methods:
Seven hundred fifty patients
with a diagnosis of IC completed a computerized
survey that queried each patient about their
demographics, symptoms, concomitant diagnoses,
treatments, and their perceived treatment
outcomes. The patients were surveyed on
therapies used to treat IC and whether they
perceived their condition to be improved, not
affected or having deteriorated at a mean
follow-up of 6 months. Pearson chi-squared tests
were used in the statistical analyses.
Results:
Invasive and medical therapies were surveyed.
The most commonly performed procedures were
hydrodistention (61.9%), intravesical therapy
(40.1%), and urethral dilatation (26.5%). Of
these procedures, 24.4% to 45.3% of patients
were improved by these procedures; whereas 27.0%
to 49.8% felt no effect and 25.9% to 30.7%
worsened. A comparison of the number of patients
who improved with those who deteriorated while
on medical therapy was found to be significant
for all drugs (P <0.001). The majority of
patients reported that medications improved
their condition, perceptively.
Conclusions:
Medical therapy is perceived to be superior to
invasive therapy in the treatment of IC.
Medication should be considered the first line
therapy for IC. Several medications showed a
large percentage of patients with improvement in
symptoms. These medications were calcium
glycerophosphate (Prelief, AkPharma Inc,
Pleasantville, NJ), phenazopyridine, and
pentosan polysulfate sodium.
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