The battle for the bladder in interstitial cystitis

Abstract

Interstitial cystitis is a visceral pain syndrome whose incidence and severity have long been underestimated. Classifying it as a “complex visceral pain syndrome” rather than as a “disease of the bladder” is justified based on evidence that the driving process behind this illness is neurogenic inflammation, which is often not restricted to the bladder. This reclassification should help us understand that many of the current urologic therapies for interstitial cystitis can cause a worsening of the syndrome and should lead practitioners to offer rational pain-relieving treatments to their patients early on in the course of their illness.