Prolonged Hydrodistention May Provide Longer Symptom Relief in Interstitial Cystitis

FRIDAY, Dec. 19, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with interstitial cystitis (IC), longer cystoscopic hydrodistention (HD) times may result in improved efficacy and longer symptom relief, according to a study published online Nov. 29 in Neurourology and Urodynamics.Sean Lim, M.B.B.S., from Monash Health in Australia, and colleagues conducted a systematic review to assess whether there is a relationship between HD time and treatment efficacy in articles examining the efficacy of HD as a sole treatment for IC. Fourteen studies (10 prospective or retrospective cohort studies and four randomized controlled trials) with 1,404 patients were included.Overall, nine of the trials examined the effect of HD for 15 minutes or less. The researchers found that four of these trials showed no significant differences in preoperative and postoperative symptoms and voiding function between one and six months. Significant improvement in subjective patient symptom scores was seen in four trials. Of these, one examined two groups of different HD times via different surgeons and showed a significant improvement in pain scores for patients undergoing HD for two and more than five minutes (pre versus post: 2.4 versus 5.5 and 1.3 versus 3.6, respectively). Time to therapeutic failure was 25.2 months for post-three minutes HD in one trial. In five trials with a total of 152 patients, prolonged HD between 30 minutes and two hours was performed; these trials showed long-term symptomatic improvement with follow-up durations of seven months to 3.2 years."Overall, whilst we cannot conclusively state that longer hydrodistension times result in better outcomes, our data demonstrates a potential link between prolonged hydrodistension and prolonged symptom relief, not previously identified in the literature," the authors write.Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required).Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Prolonged Hydrodistention May Provide Longer Symptom Relief in Interstitial Cystitis

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