Pelvic pain in urogynecology. Part II: treatment options in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms

Therapeutic options for chronic pelvic pain in women offer only a limited symptom relief. Especially in the patient with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), where overlap of pain, storage and voiding symptoms is common, data on the efficacy of treatment of pain are limited. We conducted a literature review to detect articles which pertained to female patients with LUTS and pelvic pain and we included articles which evaluated the efficacy of the treatment of pelvic pain. Forty-one articles were detected, which included nerve stimulation (sacral and pudendal), intravesical instillations and injections, oral pharmacological treatments, periurethral injections as well as physical and manual therapy as treatment options. Only five controlled trials were found, which did not show superiority of the active treatment versus placebo. Although some treatment options show promising results in the treatment of pelvic pain in patients with LUTS, more randomised controlled trials are needed to confirm these results.