Purpose: Myofascial pain is a possible etiology for category III chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, either secondary to infection/inflammation or as the primary cause. We documented tenderness on physical examination in a large multicenter cohort of patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome and compared to controls.
Materials and methods: Data were reviewed from the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Cohort study on 384 men with chronic pelvic pain syndrome and 121 asymptomatic controls who had complete unblinded physical examination data from 7 clinical centers between October 1998 and August 2001. Tenderness in 11 sites including prostate, genitals, abdomen and pelvic floor together with prostate size and consistency was evaluated. Data were correlated with cultures and symptoms.
Results: Overall 51% of patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome and 7% of controls had any tenderness. The most common site was prostate (41% chronic pelvic pain syndrome, 5% controls), followed by external and internal pelvic floor (13% and 14% chronic pelvic pain syndrome, 0 controls) and suprapubic area (9% chronic pelvic pain syndrome, 0 controls). Of patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome 25% had 1 tender site, 11% had 2 and 6% had 3 tender sites. Tenderness did not correlate with inflammation or infection in the prostate fluid. Prostate consistency was normal in 79% of patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome and in 95% of controls, and did not correlate with symptom severity. Patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome with any tenderness had significantly higher Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index scores at baseline and at 1 year (24.1 vs 21.2 and 20.2 vs 17.5, p <0.0001) compared to patients without tenderness.
Conclusions: Abdominal/pelvic tenderness is present in half of the patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome but only 7% of controls. Extraprostatic tenderness may identify a cohort of patients with a neuromuscular source of pain.