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First patient in joint ESWT trial with NUH for Chronic Pelvis Pain Syndrome (CPPS) shares his story
January 5, 2019
First patient in joint ESWT trial with NUH for Chronic Pelvis Pain Syndrome (CPPS) shares his story
Using the Dornier Aries 2, NUH has begun conducting clinical trials to use shock wave therapy as a modality to treat patients with chronic pelvis pain syndrome (CPPS).
TODAYOnline reports that the first patient to undergo the treatment, Mr. Pahwa, 55, suffered from “mysterious symptoms” that eluded diagnosis for years despite consistent medical effort. He was finally diagnosed with chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) at the National University Hospital (NUH) in Singapore.
CPPS, which affects 2 to 3 percent of the Singapore population is often seen in “men in their 40s and 50s and can also affect women.”
After shock wave therapy, Mr Pahwa reports “50 to 60 per cent less pain and improvement of symptoms”. The main causes of CPPS is “not fully understood”. Describing the difficulty in diagnosing the syndrome, Dr Lee said, “Most patients with chronic pelvic pain would have undergone multiple physical examinations and investigations such as blood tests, urine tests and imaging scans where the findings are usually normal. Everything may look perfectly normal but the pain is real for the patients.”
Consultant and director of andrology in the department of urology at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Ronny Tan, says that shock wave therapy is already being used as non-invasive treatment for erectile dysfunction, as well as sports-related conditions such as tendinitis and other inflammatory conditions.
NUH “intends to recruit around 20 adult male patients for the trial to confirm its efficacy in the local patient population, before offering it as routine treatment for chronic pelvic pain syndrome.”
