Classification of Prostatitis: What Is the Clinical Usefulness?

Abstract

Prostatitis syndrome classification is mainly based on clinical and laboratory or instrumental characteristics. The NIH classification of prostatitis syndromes includes four different main categories: (1) acute bacterial prostatitis; (2) chronic bacterial prostatitis; (3) chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, (3a) inflammatory, (3b) noninflammatory; and (4) asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis. This classification seems to be able to objectively characterize patients according to specific criteria but inefficient to determine the effects of different types of treatment on patient symptoms. On the other hand, the UPOINT classification has a six-point system as follows: U- urinary symptoms, P- psychological symptoms, O- organspecific symptoms (such as the prostate), I- infection-related symptoms, N- neurologic/systemic symptoms, and T- tenderness in the muscles and pelvic floor symptoms. In the case of chronic abacterial prostatitis, the UPOINT phenotyping allows to orient appropriate treatments and to demonstrate encouraging results in terms of clinical response and therapeutic success.