Bladder pain syndrome

Abstract

Bladder pain syndrome is the occurrence of persistent or recurrent pain perceived in the urinary bladder region, accompanied by at least one other symptom, such as pain worsening with bladder filling, daytime and/or night time urinary frequency. The symptoms present with no proven infection or other obvious local pathologies. The condition also known as painful bladder syndrome (PBS) and/or interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic debilitating condition of uncertain etiology, and both the terminologies have been used interchangeably (PBS/IC). Guy Hunner is credited with the original description of this condition (1915), but it appears to have been described earlier by Nitze et al. In keeping with the current definition, the terminology bladder pain syndrome (BPS) will be used in this chapter, instead of PBS/IC.