[Epidural spinal cord stimulation for interstitial cystitis].

INTRODUCTION: Interstitial cystitis, a chronic inflammatory disorder of the bladder wall, is highly painful and incapacitating. Urinary frequency and urgency develop, as well as nocturia, dysuria, perineal pain and reduction of bladder capacity. The condition seems to arise from a variety of factors with multiple and diverse pathogenic mechanisms and is refractory to medical and surgical treatment. Because treatments are ineffective and recent studies have implicated an inflammatory neurogenic mechanism in the pathogenesis of interstitial cystitis, neuromodulation by epidural spinal cord stimulation has been suggested for treating patients in whom other measures have failed.

CASE DESCRIPTION: A 66-year-old woman with a 9-year history of urinary incontinence, urinary urgency and suprapubic pain was diagnosed of interstitial cystitis. She was referred to our pain clinic with persistent symptoms after repeated attempts to treat the condition medically. After implantation of a cephalocaudal (retrograde) epidural spinal cord stimulator, pain decreased 80% and the improvement has been maintained with no complications.

CONCLUSION: Results from this and previous reports allow us to state that retrograde epidural spinal cord stimulation seems to be a relatively non-invasive therapeutic approach for treating interstitial cystitis that is refractory to conventional treatments.