Pelvic mapping to explore patterns of chronic pelvic pain

Review written by Dr Sandy Hilton info

Key Points

  1. There is a direct correlation between the amount of chronic pelvic pain conditions and the number of distinct areas that are painful.
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BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is pain in the structures related to the pelvis including but not limited to the genitals that persists for at least three months (1). Estimations of prevalence are wide, which may be due to a combination of under reporting and under diagnosis. Male pelvic pain ranges from 2-16% and female roughly 15% (1,2). The Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) research network has been using mapping to identify phenotypes of pelvic pain conditions and has shown that increased distribution of pain on a pain diagram is associated with poorer psychosocial health and reduced quality of life (3).

The objective of this study was to determine if the use of body diagrams specific to the pelvis and genitals of the males and females will show spatial patterns of pain. The secondary objective was to assess correlation between the number of pain locations within the pelvis and clinical features of symptoms or pain catastrophizing.

Male pelvic pain ranges from 2-16% and female roughly 15%.
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Any clinical tool that aids in identifying concerns and providing individualized treatment is worth including in the evaluation and follow up protocols of care.

METHODS

This was a retrospective study of patients who had completed a pelvic pain map designed by the researchers and who were diagnosed with at least one of the four ICD-10 codes from the validation study: pelvic floor pain, bladder pain,

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