Pelvic neuropathic pain

Abstract

Goal of the review: General practitioners, surgeons, neurologists,urologists and gynecologists all encounter patients suffering from neurogenic pelvic pain. Correct managements demands knowledge from all above mentioned specialities. Primary goal is to help patients suffering from chronic or acute pelvic pain coupled with functional disorders like dysuria, urgency, dyspareunia, mobility disorders or hypestesia. Neurogenic defect is not the most common etiology for either of listed symptoms. However after exclusion of the more common ones and failure to respond to basic therapeutic methods such as physiotherapy or analgotheraphy doctors tend to mark the illness as idiopathic and incurable. The goal of this review is to show the most common nosological units and a robust diagnostic algorithm to describe the type and level of damage.

Methodology: Review of literature using databases Pubmed, Science direct, Medline and sources of the international school of Neuropelveology (ISNP)

Conclusion: Over a lifetime one in seven women will suffer from chronic pelvic pain. Outside of the cases where a clear postoperative etiology is established the time to make a correct diagnosis is often long for the unspecific and varied symptomatology. Neuropelveological diagnostic algorithm is demonstrably efficient in shortening the time to diagnosis and more importantly to treatment.