Chronic pelvic ischemia: etiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation and management

Overactive Bladder (OAB) and Bladder Pain Syndrome (BPS) although common, are vaguely defined and difficult to diagnose and manage etiologies of storage--type lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). The lack of optimal management options is a direct consequence of deficient understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying these conditions. These conditions are especially prevalent in females, and cumulative contemporary epidemiological, clinical and laboratory evidence implicates ischemia as one of the key players in the pathophysiologic foundation of both these disorders. Taken together they make up 'the' diagnostic as well as therapeutic black--hole in urologic practice. Much akin to chronic ischemic heart disease, chronic ischemia--reperfusion has been shown to cause degenerative changes at cellular and sub--cellular level in the bladder mucosa, smooth muscle fibers, and vesical neural and microvascular structures leading to a hypersensitive, hyperactive bladder initially, which with time invariably progresses into a failed, fibrotic and pressurized bladder. Diagnosis and management of these diseases are currently symptom focused and remains a source of much frustration. Consideration of role of ischemia connotates hope and could lead to a paradigm shift in the management of these patients with a completely new therapeutic armamentarium attacking the pathology itself.