• Ricardo R Gonzalez and Alexis E Te.
• Department of Urology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 525 East 68th Street, F918, New York, NY 10021, USA. ricardorgonzalez@stanfordalumni
• Curr Urol Rep. 2004 Dec 1; 5 (6): 437-41.

AbstractDifficulties encountered in diagnosing and effectively treating chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is frustrating for clinicians and patients. Scientific evidence cannot establish an exact relationship between the prostate and the symptoms of CP/CPPS, and the prostate continues to be the diagnosis of convenience in this complex syndrome in men. However, if the pain is not the prostate's, whose pain is it? A heterogeneous group of insults can result in a common neurogenic pain response, resulting in recurring pain and voiding or sexual dysfunction. To add to this dilemma, certain life-threatening diagnoses, such as carcinoma-in-situ, is in the differential diagnosis and must be excluded. Urodynamics may be useful in evaluating and treating patients whose voiding symptoms predominate. However, many patients with CP/CPPS will not have measurable abnormalities by conventional methods and likely suffer from a functional somatic syndrome that is best treated with a multimodality approach.

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