August 09, 2017
Urology
Abstract
This abstract is available on the publisher’s site. Access this abstract now
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the clinical efficacy of intensive systematic dietary manipulation (ISDM) for female patients with interstitial cystitis (IC)/bladder pain syndrome (BPS) in stable condition who were followed up in our hospital.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In cooperation with the nutrition control team, we created a basic IC/BPS diet menu for 1 month. Data regarding daily food intake and food-related symptoms were collected by conducting a detailed interview of each patient, and we set meal menu to control IC/BPS symptoms and advised the patients to reduce the intake of specific food items to the maximum possible extent. The following food items were removed from or restricted in the diet of patients: tomatoes, tomato products, soybean, tofu product, spices, excessive potassium, citrus, high-acidity-inducing substances, etc. We evaluated the following factors 3 months and 1 year after the start of the intervention: O’Leary-Sant symptom index, O’Leary-Sant problem index, urgency visual analogue scale score, bladder or pelvic pain visual analogue scale score, and numerical patient-reported quality of life index.
RESULTS
All evaluated factors improved statistically significantly when the intensive group was compared with the nonintensive group (baseline to 3 months and 3 months to 1 year ISDM, P <.05, respectively).
CONCLUSION
ISDM was found to alleviate the symptoms of IC/BPS in almost 3 months and continued clinical efficacy for at least 1 year. ISDM as one of the conservative treatment modality for IC/BPS should be attempted more strictly because of its noninvasiveness, without alterations to the other treatments.
Story Source – free registration
Journal Abstract
Urology
This elegant paper evaluates the clinical efficacy of intensive systematic dietary manipulation in female patients with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome, comparing 30 patients on the diet arm with 10 patients in a control arm and following them for 1 year. Although the numbers are small, it clearly shows that a strict, intensive diet plan has benefits. One assumes that the control patients self-selected to avoid foods and beverages that would flare their symptoms, although it is not clear what their level of knowledge regarding potential benefits of food and beverage selection might be, and this baseline information would have been helpful in evaluating the results. If most patients naturally tend to avoid food or beverages that flare their symptoms, the results of the study become even more impressive. If this assumption is inaccurate, the results are far less impressive for this intensive regimen.
This study would have been more powerful if a “placebo” diet had been employed and the placebo group had been larger. Both groups would have then assumed they were on some type of active therapy.
I would be interested in seeing this study applied to patients with overactive bladder symptoms in the future.
I suspect this study will be quite influential. Much work remains to be done on diet and its relationship with lower urinary tract symptoms.