Interstitial Cystitis Treatment

What is Interstitial Cystitis?

Interstitial Cystitis is also known as Painful Bladder Syndrome or Bladder Pain Syndrome. It is a chronic condition that causes bladder pressure, bladder pain, and sometimes pelvic pain. With interstitial cystitis, these signals get mixed up — you feel the need to urinate more often and with smaller volumes of urine than most people.
Interstitial cystitis most often affects women and can have a long-lasting impact on quality of life. Although there’s no cure, medications and other therapies may offer relief.

What are the causes of Interstitial Cystitis?

It’s not clear why it happens, but there are several ideas:

A problem with bladder tissue lets things in your pee irritate your bladder.
Inflammation causes your body to release chemicals that cause symptoms.
Something in your urine damages your bladder.
A nerve problem makes your bladder feel pain from things that usually don’t hurt.
Your immune system attacks the bladder.
Another condition that causes inflammation is also targeting the bladder.

What are the symptoms of Interstitial Cystitis?

The symptom of IC varies from person to person and may persists for months and weeks. However, some common symptoms include:

Bladder pressure and pain that gets worse as your bladder fills up.
Pain in your lower tummy, lower back, pelvis, or urethra (the tube that carries pee from your bladder out of your body)
For women, pain in the vulva, vagina, or the area behind the vagina
For men, pain in the scrotum, testicles, penis, or the area behind the scrotum
The need to pee often (more than the normal 7-8 times daily)
The feeling you need to pee right now, even right after you go
For women, pain during sex
For men, pain during orgasm or after sex

Treatment for Interstitial Cystitis:

Medicines and therapies along with some healthy lifestyle changes are believed to be effective in the treatment of Interstitial Cystitis. If all these options do not work, then surgery is the last resort for such patients.

Medicines:

Tablets and medicines may be used to treat Interstitial Cystitis. These medicines include:

painkillers – such as paracetamol and ibuprofen
over-the-counter antihistamines – such as loratadine and cetirizine
stronger painkillers available on prescription – such as amitriptyline, gabapentin and pregabalin
tolterodine, solifenacin or mirabegron – these helps relax the bladder muscles
cimetidine – a prescription medicine that may help by blocking the effect of a substance called histamine on cells in the bladder
pentosan polysulfate sodium (Elmiron) – this may help repair the bladder lining

Intravesical medications include lignocaine, which is a local anaesthetic that numbs the bladder, and hyaluronic acid or chondroitin sulphate, which are medicines that may help restore the bladder lining.

Supportive Therapies: Following supportive therapies might be helpful in treating Interstitial Cystitis:

Physiotherapy: massages and exercises of the pelvic floor muscles
Bladder retraining: the practice of holding urine for a certain period
Psychological therapy: help coping in symptoms
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation: a small battery-operated device is used to relieve pain by sending electrical impulses into your body

Surgery: Surgeries are recommended only if there are some abnormal areas in your bladder and other treatment procedures have failed altogether.

Procedures that may be carried out include:

cauterisation– where ulcers inside the bladder are sealed using an electrical current or laser
bladder distension – where the bladder is stretched with fluid, which can aid diagnosis and may temporarily relieve your symptoms
botulinum toxin injections – where a substance called botulinum toxin is injected directly into your bladder to temporarily relieve your symptoms
neuromodulation– where an implant that stimulates your nerves with electricity is placed in your body to relieve pain and reduce sudden urges to pee
augmentation– making the bladder larger using part of the small intestine; this usually also includes removing any inflamed areas of the bladder
In very rare cases, it may be necessary to remove the bladder completely (cystectomy).

At Saudi German Hospital, our clinic of Urology is fully equipped with state-of-the-art technology followed by the latest foreign quality treatment procedures. Our expert and highly qualified team of doctors are an asset for the Saudi German Hospital. They will assist you and help you in every way possible.