Must-read Nuggets from the 2012 Annual IPPS Meeting

In Female Pelvic Pain, Male Pelvic Pain by Stephanie Prendergast and Elizabeth Rummer1 Comment

PHRC PTS

PHRC Team with Dr. Stuart Rosenberg at IPPS Meeting

This year’s annual International Pelvic Pain Society meeting wrapped up this past Sunday, and our team at PHRC is thrilled to begin sharing all of the exciting and thought-provoking information we took home with us. In the coming weeks we’ll be doing just that right here on our blog.

In the meantime, here are a few nuggets from the lineup of lectures that we just couldn’t wait to share!

Allison heard from Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald that in a normal pregnancy, 20% of first-time moms show severe levator ani injury. (The levator ani is one of the big ones!) That’s a pretty significant percentage, especially when you consider that Dr. Fitzgerald was referring only to “normal pregnancies.” Can you say “postnatal pelvic floor rehab”!

Stephanie listened to Dr. Barry Jarnagin who explained that it’s not necessary to use cystoscopy in the diagnosis of bladder pain syndrome (a.k.a. IC), and that a cystoscopy should only be done in patients who are over 50 to rule out cancer. Good news given the fact that this procedure can exacerbate a patient’s pain!

Liz heard Jason Kutch describe the fascinating results of the first brain imaging studies of the male pelvic pain population, research that was undertaken at the University of Southern California. Plus, she is still pondering Daniel Kirages question about whether it’s possible to look into the neural mechanisms of pelvic pain patients in order to figure out if they belong in an “end organ disease” category or a “central desensitization pain syndrome” category. Categorizing patients in this way would allow for PTs to better focus their treatment methods.

Marcy listened to Lorimer Moseley’s fascinating lecture, “Rethinking Pelvic Pain: Lessons from Two Decades of Explaining Pain.” To use Moseley’s own words the lecture was full of “a whole lot of groovy stuff” including the fact that “pain is not an input into the brain, but an output from the brain.” Other golden nuggets Marcy walked away with from the lecture concerned the issues surrounding the mislabeling of nociceptors as pain fibers and the multifactorial nature of pain.

Melinda heard that a compound called “cyaniding,” which is contained in cherry extract showed a better amount of inflammatory action than aspirin. It was Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark who mentioned this in her lecture “Nutritional Considerations in Treating Patients with Pain.” Dr. Maker-Clark said that she recommends taking 2 tablespoons of Montmorency cherry juice concentrate daily. Mushrooms, tea, red wine, soy, omega-3s, and the spice turmeric were also spotlighted in this informative talk.

Melinda also heard from Susan Kellogg that research shows that pelvic floor PTs are not asking patients about sex. Considering the impact pelvic pain has on a patient’s sexual health, this represents a major disconnect!

Look out for upcoming blogs, which will expand on these nuggets and more from the IPPS conference.

The PHRC Crew!

Comments

  1. Congratulations on a successful conference. Looking forward to seeing the summaries!

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