Effects of non-ablative vaginal erbium:YAG laser treatment for interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome: a case series (UNICORN-2 study)

Abstract

Purpose: There are no established treatments for treating interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). We conducted a study to verify the effectiveness of non-ablative vaginal erbium:YAG laser (VEL) treatment for patients with IC/BPS who were resistant to conventional treatments.

Methods: A total of 12 patients without improvement after several treatments before 2016 underwent VEL treatment once a month for 12 months as per their convenience. The numeric rating scale-11 (NRS-11), O'Leary–Sant interstitial cystitis symptom and problem indexes (ICSI and ICPI), functional bladder capacity, and daily urinary frequency were obtained.

Results: In total, nine patients responded to the treatment and three did not. The NRS-11 scores and ICSI and ICPI improved in all responders. The bladder capacity and urinary frequency also normalized. The residual effect lasted for 18 months from the first treatment without long-term side-effects.

Conclusions: VEL treatment is a safe and effective treatment in patients with IC/BPS.

摘要

目的：没有确切的治疗间质性膀胱炎/膀胱疼痛综合征(IC/BPS)的方法。我们进行了一项研究以验证非消融阴道饵YAG激光（VEL）治疗对抗拒常规治疗方法的IC / BPS患者的有效性。

方法：对2016年之前接受多种治疗后均无改善的共12例患者进行VEL治疗, 每月一次, 共12个月, 在其方便时进行。收集数字评价量表-11（NRS-11）, O'Leary–Sant间质性膀胱炎的症状指数评分和问题指数评分(ICSI评分和ICPI评分)、功能性膀胱容量和每日排尿次数

结果：总共9例患者对治疗有反应, 3例无反应。所有有反应者其NRS-11评分以及ICSI和ICPI评分均得到改善。膀胱容量和排尿次数也趋于正常。

结论：VEL对于IC / BPS患者是一种安全且有效的治疗方法。

Keywords:

• Non-ablative vaginal erbium:YAG laser
• interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome
• numeric rating scale
• O'Leary–Sant symptom and problem indexes
• functional bladder capacity
• daily urinary frequency

Acknowledgements

The authors thank F. Hirata MD (Yokosuka Tower Clinic, Yokosuka) for management of internal medical condition, Y. Kono RN, Y. Nakano RN (Dr Okui’s Urogynecology and Urology Clinic) for professional nursing, H. Aoki, I. Aoki and M. Ishikawa (external audit legal and economy committee) for ethical standards.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Review Board of Kanagawa Association of Medical and Dental Practitioners of Japan (1903) and registered at University Hospital Medical Information Network- Clinical Trial Registration Japan: UMIN-CTR (R000043397). The study was conducted in accordance with the protocol (UNICORN-2 study). The study website is http://unicorn-study.net/.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Potential conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Source of funding

Nil.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.