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Downey A, Hennessy DB, Curry D, Cartwright C, Downey P, Pahuja A. Intravesical chondroitin sulphate for interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome. Ulster Med J. 2015 Oct;84(3):161-3.

Bladder instillation, or the application of treatments directly to the bladder, is a promising avenue of treatment for interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) but the evidence supporting its use is not extensive. In this study, investigators studied instillation of a chondroitin sulphate solution in 10 patients with IC/BPS in Northern Ireland. All 10 of the patients (9 female, 1 male) had previously undergone unsuccessful treatment with DMSO. They were subsequently given 10 treatments with chondroitin sulfate over 24 weeks. All 10 patients responded to the treatment. At the end of treatment period of 24 weeks, the average pain score fell from 6.6 to 2.0, urgency scores fell from 7.00 to 1.80, and symptom scores fell from 13.5 to 6.89, all indicating improvement on treatment. Although the study is small, the results are encouraging, especially since all patients tolerated the treatment well and no side effects were seen during the instillation process.