Long-term experience with sodium chondroitin sulfate in patients with painful bladder syndrome☆

Abstract Objective To assess the response of patients diagnosed with painful bladder syndrome to treatment with instillations of sodium chondroitin sulfate. Material and methods We present a series of cases of patients with painful bladder syndrome who followed a bladder instillation protocol with sodium chondroitin sulfate, according to our centre's regimen. The response to treatment was assessed with respect to pain, according to the Downie scale; urinary frequency, according to the voiding diary; and subjective improvement, according to the Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI- I ) scale. Results A total of 28 patients with a median age of 59 years (range 22–90) followed this protocol. From the medical histories, 19.4% had suffered an infection of the urinary tract, 3.8% had suffered urinary tuberculosis, 7.6% received pelvic radiation therapy and 26.9% had taken anticholinergic drugs for overactive bladder syndrome. We evaluated the response to treatment at 0, 3, 6 and 12 months and found that at the end of treatment 72.3% of the patients had improved bladder pain and 75% were significantly better. Conclusions Treatment with sodium chondroitin sulfate through endovesical instillation in painful bladder syndrome improves pain, voiding frequency and quality of life in the long term.