Fact-finding surveillance of patients with interstitial cystitis in the Kyushu area - 16th Kyushu cooperative urological research

We retrospectively evaluated 458 patients with interstitial cystitis (IC) who had fulfilled the Japanese Clinical Guidelines for IC at 40 hospitals affiliated with 11 universities in the Kyushu area between 2002 and 2006. Our cohort consisted of 354 female and 104 male patients with a median age of 62 years. The median interval between symptom onset and first hospital visit was 12 months (1∼456 months). The frequent symptoms were urinary frequency (69.4%), bladder pain (39.3%), and urinary urgency (12.7%). The median voided volume was 100 ml. Cystoscopic examination revealed glomerulation in 371 cases (81.0%) and Hunner's region in 55 cases (12.0%). Those patients were treated with hydrodistension in 399 cases (87.1%), oral medication in 305 cases (66.6%), and intravesical instillation in 89 cases (19.4%), while 163 patients received combination treatment comprising hydrodistension plus oral medication. Overall, these treatments were effective for symptom improvement in 76.4% of the patients (median follow-up period of 18 months) based on the Global Response Assessment We found significant improvements in voiding parameters after these treatments. It is important to confirm the diagnostic procedure of IC, and the proper treatment combinations should be selected after fully considering patient characteristics and other factors. There has been a recent increase in the number of patients suffering from IC in Japan. Therefore, the current data provide important information regarding patients' characteristics and the proper treatment of IC, and will serve as a useful reference for future surveillance studies.