ABSTRACT
The most recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) classification of prostatitis adopted in 1995 (Table 1) includes acute or chronic bacterial infections, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, and even asymptomatic inflammation of the prostate (1). Category III is known as chronic prostatitis/ chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). The current NIH definition of CP/CPPS includes genitourinary pain with or without voiding symptoms in the absence of uropathogenic bacteria detected by standardmicrobiological methods or other identifiable causes such as amalignancy (1). The accepted research definition is that of chronic pelvic pain for at least three of the preceding six months in the absence of other identifiable causes (2). The symptom that distinguishes CP/CPPS from other voiding dysfunction is the presence of pain (3). Category III is divided into IIIA and IIIB. IIIA refers to the presence of any number of white blood cells (WBCs) in either semen, post-prostate massage urine specimen (VB3), or expressed prostatic secretions (EPS). This corresponds to thepreviouslyused classificationof nonbacterial prostatitis (4). Category IIIB is comparable to the formerly used term prostatodynia, and refers to patients with pelvic pain but no evidence of inflammation in either semen, VB3, or EPS.
