[Advances in the treatment of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome]

Abstract

So far the etiology of chronic prostatitis (PC) and particularly chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) remains to be elucidated. According to recent epidemiologic data, CP is the most common urological disease in men below 50 years and occurs in 2.5%-16.0% of the world population. Since the 1990s, researchers of many countries have carried out deeper, more extensive and larger scaled studies than ever before on the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of the disease, with the sponsorship and coordination of such international institutions as the International Prostatitis Collaborative Network (IPCN), the Chronic Prostatitis Collaborative Research Network of the National Institute of Health (NIH-CPCRN) and so on. As prevalent as multiple sclerosis, CPPS is the most common yet most poorly understood "prostatitis syndrome". This article reviews the progress in the studies of the treatment of CPPS, explores the main problems and ventures the prospects for the development in this field.