[Chronic pelvic pain in urology: a nationwide questionnaire survey among French urologists]

Abstract

Objective: To know the opinion of French urologists concerning the importance of pelvic and perineal pain syndromes in their clinical activity, their management, self-admitted knowledge and training needs concerning this situation.

Material and methods: Eight hundred and seventy-eight urologists exercising in France, all French Urology Association (AFU) members, have been asked to fill in an online questionnaire concerning their daily management of chronic pelvic and perineal pain syndromes.

Results: Three hundred and fifty-two urologists answered (response rate 40%). For about 20%, chronic pelvic and perineal pain syndromes took up more than 5% of consult activity. More than half took care of between 20 and 100 new cases of chronic pelvic and perineal pain every year. More than two thirds deemed their knowledge concerning chronic pelvic and perineal pain fair to insufficient. Three quarters of urologists would like to benefit from an opinion from another specialist for more than one out of four patients. More than 56% deemed that the organization of their daily consult activity was inadequate for the management of this type of patient. Most of them deemed useful to develop additional specific training programs.

Conclusion: This survey shows that pelvic and perineal pain syndromes are frequent in daily urological consult activity, despite the fact that urologists feel they lack in training and organization to manage properly these diseases.