Pregabalin in chronic pelvic pain [Kronik pelvik aǧri{dotless}da pregabalin]

Objective: in women,chronic pelvic pain (cpp) is a common complaint,affecting as many as 15% of women. cpp may originate from both gynaecologic and non-gynaecologic causes,including urological,gastrointestinal,psychiatric and neuromuscular disorders. in cpp,the pain has a neuropathic component because of its chronic nature. this creates difficulty in the treatment of cpp. thus,we examined both neuropathic pain component and effect of pregabalin in women with cpp. methods: to evaluate pain quality,leeds assessment of neuropathic symptoms and signs (lanss) scale was applied to 27 female patients with chronic pelvic pain whom had not responded to the previous treatments. there was neuropathic component in 22 patients who have lanss score of 12 and more. etiologies related to the chronic pelvic pain were vulvodynia (n:7),interstitial cystitis (n:5),endometriosis (n:6),pelvic inflammatory disease (n:4),and previous abdominal surgeries (n:5). some of patients had more than one etiology. pain intensity were tested using the visual analogue scale (vas) before and weekly during the treatment with pregabalin. results: the mean vas score had been measured as 8.3 before the treatment. the patients received pregabalin 75 mg twice daily. even in this beginning dosage of the treatment,improvements in vas score of the patients were observed during the first week. the mean vas score had been measured as 3.1 after one week. the patients with vulvodynia had the most benefit,the patients with interstitial cystitis had the least benefit from pregabalin. conclusions: this first data about effectiveness of pregabalin in chronic pelvic pain is very encouraging. however,randomized clinical trials are needed for further evaluations.