title: The pelvic pain centre.
abstract: Pelvic pain is a symptom which, in many patients, may be chronic. Since pelvic pain is relatively unknown to many doctors, patients tend to consult many different physicians and are, as a whole, a difficult group to treat. All of these aspects together make it easy to understand that a specialised multidisciplinary centre is needed to treat pelvic pain patients. In this article a blueprint for such a centre is proposed. The structure of the building, the workers, the goals of this centre and the importance of education and research will be shown. Some aspects on the future of pelvic pain centres will conclude this article.
authors.affiliation: Academic Medical Centre, Department of Urology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Messelink
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D018710:Pain Clinics / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D000078329:Workforce