Women of reproductive age may experience inflammation of the bladder of non-microbial origin combined with a decrease in the volume of the bladder.
What is interstitial cystitis?
This disease was described as far back as 1914, but the causes that cause it have not been determined to date. Possible reasons for the development of interstitial cystitis include:
- increased permeability of the mucosa for urine components due to the lack of glycosaminoglycans in it, which leads to inflammation of submucous layers of the wall of the bladder;
- violation of the mechanisms of protection of the mucous layer of the bladder;
- disturbance of lymphatic drainage from the bladder;
- autoimmune disorders;
- viral and bacterial inflammations with a prolonged course and a violation of the integrity of the mucosa and its normal regeneration;
- endocrine disorders (especially with a lack of estrogen);
- metabolic and blood supply disorders of the bladder, causing its hypoxia;
- neuropathy, psychogenic disorders in women.
Interstitial cystitis - symptoms
Described a century ago by doctors, the bladder's Ganner's ulcer with interstitial cystitis is almost not found now. Most often diagnose interstitial cystitis, when there are symptoms of cystitis, and with the treatment of inflammation of the bladder has no effect. Usually, interstitial cystitis is a chronic process, the symptoms of which are:
- frequent urination (sometimes up to several times an hour at any time of the day, but not less than 8 times during the day);
- imperative urges - a sudden feeling of overflow of the bladder with urges for immediate urination accompanied by pain;
- pain with a filled bladder, subsiding upon emptying, giving off in a small pelvis or urethra;
- nocturia - frequent nocturnal urge to urinate;
- pain during sex, exacerbation of pain before menstruation, pain in the small pelvis, which intensify with the filling of the bladder.
Diagnosis of interstitial cystitis is based not only on clinical symptoms, which should last at least 9 months without improvement under the effect of antibacterial therapy, but also cystometry. A characteristic feature of interstitial cystitis remains a decrease in the total capacity of the bladder less than 300 ml, and with its rapid filling with liquid during the procedure to a volume of up to 100 ml, there are mandatory urge to urinate. To make the diagnosis exclude other diseases of the bladder, it is worth remembering that the disease does not develop in women younger than 18 years.
Interstitial cystitis - treatment
With a significant reduction in the volume of the bladder and the presence of Ganner's ulcer, surgical treatment is used - transurethral resection and bladder plastic surgery. But more often conservative methods of treatment are used, one of the important components of which remains a special diet - with interstitial cystitis contraindicated acute dishes, chocolate, acidic products, limited intake of potassium.
Of the drug therapy recommended symptomatic treatment - antispasmodics, analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs, in the autoimmune process - antihistamines. Apply hydro-boring (bladder expansion by installations of silver nitrate, heparin, dimethylsulfoxide, lidocaine).
To restore the normal functioning of the bladder mucosa, pentosan sodium polysulphate 100 mg 3 times a day for 3 to 9 months is used, although clinical improvement is possible in a month. From the physiotherapeutic methods of treatment, the electrostimulation of the bladder is used.
Treatment with folk remedies when interstitial cystitis is diagnosed is not used, but use of bladder training is a volitional prolongation of the interval between urination in order to prevent a rapid decrease in its capacity.