Efficiency of posterior tibial nerve stimulation in category IIIB chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain: a Sham-Controlled Comparative Study.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous posterior tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS) for treatment of the patients with category IIIB chronic non-bacterial prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome.

METHODS

A total of 89 patients with therapy-resistant pelvic pain were randomized to receive either nerve stimulation (n = 45) or sham treatment (n = 44). The National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index and visual analogue scale were used to assess treatment success after 12 weeks of intervention. Objective success was defined as a minimum 50% decrease in the mean scores. A decrease of over 25% to below 50% was considered to be a partial response.

RESULTS

An objective response was observed with the pain and symptom scores after 12 weeks of PTNS in 18 (40%) and 30 (66.6%) of the patients, whereas a partial response was observed in 27 (60%) and 15 (33.3%) of the patients, respectively. Mean symptom scores and visual analogue scale scores for pain and urgency were significantly changed from 23.6 +/- 6.3 at baseline to 10.2 +/- 3.6, 7.6 +/- 0.8 at baseline to 4.3 +/- 0.6, 5.7 +/- 0.8 at baseline to 3.4 +/- 0.7, respectively. Scores for the symptoms, urgency and pain were not changed with sham treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

These results have demonstrated that percutaneous PTNS may relieve pain in the patients with category IIIB chronic non-bacterial prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome.