News Releases

Unspeakable Nerve Pain Relieved by Outpatient Procedure

Houston, Texas, January 12, 2004 – The only medical team of its kind in the U.S. is diagnosing and treating chronic genital and rectal pain through a highly specialized, 30-minute, outpatient procedure being performed at Memorial Hermann Fort Bend Hospital.
   

“After this treatment, I’ve witnessed patients who had been previously misdiagnosed by as many as 25 to 30 other doctors break down and cry when, suddenly, their pain is gone,” says Memorial Hermann Fort Bend Hospital radiologist James Murphy, M.D., as he describes patients he has treated for pudendal nerve entrapment (PNE) – a condition so excruciating that, for many, sitting is not an option.

PNE is an unexplained nerve condition that causes pain in the area served by the pudendal nerve, which carries sensations from the external genitals, the lower rectum and the perineum (the area between the genitals and the rectum). Pain may affect one area, several or all and is, not surprisingly, frequently accompanied by urinary, rectal or sexual performance problems.
    

PNE can occur suddenly or develop gradually, over months, without being noticed until the pain peaks. It may be caused by prolonged sitting, particularly in patients who sit at computers for long periods of time, bicycling and lifting weights. In women, it can occur after childbirth or pelvic surgery.

Kenneth Renney, M.D., a Memorial Hermann affiliated sports medicine specialist and colleague of Murphy’s, was a competitive cyclist who developed genital pain after being hit by a car in 1997. For two and a half years, doctors misdiagnosed his condition as prostatitis. When treatments failed to relieve the pain, he turned to Murphy, who injected his pudendal nerve with a steroid and local anesthetic – the combination of which is called a pudendal nerve block and serves to both diagnose and treat PNE. “Finally, here was a treatment that actually eliminated my pain and we made the diagnosis from that,” said Renney, who underwent surgery in France, the only country at the time offering such surgery and publishing the results.

After his surgery, Renney returned to France to study PNE treatment, and in May 2002, he assembled a highly specialized team that now offers diagnosis and treatment of PNE with the pudendal nerve block at Memorial Hermann Fort Bend Hospital. Also on the team are Memorial Hermann neurologist Charles Popeney, D.O., whose nerve condition studies evaluate damage to pudendal nerves, and neurosurgeon Lee Ansell, M.D., who performs surgical release of trapped pudendal nerves in patients who do not respond completely to the nerve block.

“We have seen over 225 patients, ranging in age from 17 to their 70s,” says Renney. “Our patients have traveled from as far away as South Africa, California, New York and Florida after learning about the treatments online.”

Pudendal nerve block is an outpatient procedure that only takes about 30 minutes to perform. “In some cases, the blocks alone can cure pudendal nerve entrapment within one year of symptoms,” notes Murphy. “Patients who’ve experienced pain for more than a year won’t be cured but can see significant, life-improving pain reduction.”

To learn more about treatment options, visit www.hosma.com/renney, follow the instructions for pudendal nerve patient information and sign up for secure messaging so the team can communicate with you by e-mail, answer any questions and schedule an appointment. Or you may call 281-565-8800. An international PNE support group has also created its own web site that Renney recommends at www.pudendal.info.

For more information, contact Media Relations.