Botox curbs painful bladder condition

Surprisingly, Botox injections seem to reduce pain caused by a condition called interstitial cystitis, results of a small study indicated.

Botulinum toxin A, commonly known as Botox, "may be a useful treatment option in patients with interstitial cystitis," which is characterized by urinary pain, frequency, and urgency, the researchers note in the medical journal Urology.

The finding is unexpected because Botox is thought to affect the types of nerves that control muscles, not those that transmit pain signals.

Dr. Michael B. Chancellor, from the University of Pittsburgh school of Medicine and colleagues treated 13 women with chronic interstitial cystitis. Six in the United States were injected with Botox and seven women in Poland were given another version of the drug, Dysport.

The medication was injected into 20 to 30 sites in the floor of the bladder while the women were under short general anesthesia or sedation.

Overall, nine of the 13 women saw improvement after treatment. Pain scores on a visual scale fell by 79 percent, and symptoms of daytime and nighttime urinary frequency fell by 44 percent and 45 percent, respectively.

Dr. Jeremy B. Tuttle, from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, contends in an editorial that "if substantiated, these results imply our understanding of how botulinum toxin A operates and how interstitial cystitis symptoms arise may need revision."

Tuttle says Chancellor's team should be congratulated for their "surprising results and for devising a new promising treatment" for interstitial cystitis.

SOURCE: Urology, December 2004.