Chronic pelvic pain.

The topic of chronic pelvic pain (CPP) has long been a frustrating one for physicians and patients alike, with difficulties in diagnosis and management leading to delays in recovery. Recent insights into the neurobiology of chronic pain disorders and into mechanisms of visceral pain suggest that significant advances in treatment of CPP are likely to occur during coming years. These insights suggest that we consider directing our treatment efforts away from the visceral organ presumed to be primarily responsible for the CPP and toward treatment of the neurologic mechanisms that sustain chronic pain.