ABSTRACT
Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic, debilitating disease of the urinary bladder characterized by urinary frequency, nocturia, urgency, and frequently pain. It affects more females than males by a ratio of approximately 10:1.1
Recently, the International Continence Society (ICS) has developed a somewhat broader term for IC, described as ‘IC-painful bladder syndrome’. This new term is defined as the complaint of suprapubic pain related to bladder filling, and is accompanied by other symptoms, such as increased daytime and night-time frequency in the absence of proven urinary infection or other obvious pathology.2 The true prevalence of IC is not determined and it may be underestimated. In 1997, Jones and Nyberg estimated that up to 1 million patients in the United States suffer from IC, and many of them are unable to cope with day-to-day activities.3
