Saturday’s speakers had a tough act to follow after Friday’s sessions. At the end of the day, they proved they were more than up the task delivering a day of excellent discussions. Take a look at the nuggets that our PHRC team picked up during the day of interesting presentations.
Liz listened to Dr. Arnold Advincula discuss the surgical management of advanced endometriosis. In the beginning of his lecture, Dr. Advincula pointed out that the key to the successful management of endometriosis is for providers to know the anatomy. From there, with the help of a handful of well-produced surgical videos, he proceeded to explain in fascinating detail, not only the anatomy surrounding the diagnosis of endometriosis, but various surgical procedures used to treat it.
Allison heard Dr. Robert Evans share his current thoughts on diagnosis and management of interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome. Dr. Evans’ lively discussion kicked off by pointing out that IC may be a common and major cause of pelvic pain in women. He also posed the question as to whether chronic prostatitis in men is on the same spectrum of disease as IC in women noting the similarities in symptoms. Dr. Evans went on to point out that IC is a multimodal disease that needed to be treated with a multimodal protocol. He concluded with a review of the litany of diagnosis and treatment options available to patients with IC.
Stacey heard from Christin Veasley, director of the National Vulvodynia Association (NVA), and Dr. Georgine Lamvu talk about the EVA Project a.k.a. the “Evidence-based Vulvodynia Assessment,” an effort to create a national registry for the study of vulvodynia. Their discussion included an explanation of the current classification of vulvodynia, information on its prevalence, available treatments as well as a detailed review of the to date registry, including what has already been learned from it, such as that only 10% of patients had generalized vulvar pain and that nearly all women surveyed reported painful intercourse and yet a substantial proportion remain sexually active in spite of their pain. Lastly, they discussed emerging trends in the research of the condition and gave an overview of the future strategies of the NVA.
Malinda attended Dr. Lynn Walker’s discussion of abdominal pain from childhood into adulthood. Dr. Walker began her discussion with an explanation of functional abdominal pain. From there she outlined the characteristics of the patients who are the most vulnerable to poor outcomes. She then discussed the mechanisms of pain persistence as well as the clinical assessment and treatment of the condition. Lastly, she raised the question of whether successful treatment of abdominal pain in childhood can prevent chronic pelvic pain in adulthood.
Marcy heard Dr. Ursula Wesselmann present transitional research insights into the mechanisms underlying urogenital pain syndromes in women. She began the discussion by providing a list of pain classifications pointing out that urogenital and pelvic pain belonged in the category of “deep pain,” which includes muscle, fascia, joint, bone, vasculature, and viscera pain. From there she discussed the current and past state of the conditions taking a fascinating look at historic attitudes toward the pain syndromes. She then went on to point out the importance of keeping the global picture in mind rather than chasing a single symptom. She then provided an explanation of referred pain and the overlap of chronic urogenital pain conditions. Lastly, she outlined research that showed that stress or happiness can influence urogenital/pelvic pain syndromes.
Other discussions today included (these discussions not included in above summary due to time constraints):
- Basics of Pain Processing: Mice are People Too: Social Modulation of and by Pain Laboratory Rodents and Humans
- 2D Ultrasound in Urological Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndromes
All around a fantastic day! And all of us are looking forward to tomorrow’s post-conference course “Movement System Approach: Hip and SIJ Diagnosis and Treatment” delivered by Tracy Spitznagle, PT, DPT, WCS.
Thanks for checking in!
All our best,
The PHRC Team