Urinary Problems

Acupuncture ameliorates symptoms in men with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome

We regularly see patients with prostate pain as well as epididimytitis. Initially acupuncture is usually the prefered treatment although for very chronic cases herbs are used also.

Twelve men underwent a minimum of 6 weeks of acupuncture treatment. The average follow-up was 33 weeks. A significant decrease occurred in total NIH-CPSI (28.2 to 8.5), NIH-CPSI pain (14.1 to 4.8), NIH-CPSI urinary (5.2 to 1.3), and NIH-CPSI quality-of-life (8.8 to 2.3) scores after an average of 33 weeks of follow-up. Ten patients (83%) had a sustained greater than 50% decrease in NIH-CPSI at final visit (average 33 weeks). Ten patients (83%) reported marked improvement on the subjective global assessment at 12 weeks. At an average of 33 weeks, 8 patients (67%) had sustained marked improvement on subjective global assessment evaluation. No adverse events were reported in this pilot study.

Conclusions
Acupuncture appears to be a safe, effective, and durable treatment in improving symptoms in, and the quality of life of, men with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome refractory to treatment. A larger controlled study is required to confirm these encouraging initial results.

Urology, Volume 61, Issue 6, Pages 1156-1159
R.CHEN