Etiology: Etiologic and Pathogenetic Theories in Interstitial Cystitis

Painful bladder disease including interstitial cystitis is a symptom complex, first introduced by Borque (Borque 1951). There are painful bladder diseases with a known and an unknown etiology (Holm-Bentzen and Lose 1987; Holm-Bentzen et al. 1987c). All the patients present with a variety of urologic symptoms all of a more or less chronic nature: supra-retropubic pain, frequency, nocturia, urgency, dysuria and occasionally hematuria and stranguria (Hald and Holm-Bentzen 1986). The painful bladder diseases of a more specific nature and with a known etiology are listed in Table 6.1.