ABSTRACT
Background: Atypical facial Pain is a debilitating condition characterized by stabbing, burning and dysesthetic sensation. With a variety of underlying causes neurosurgeons has struggled to find its effective treatments. Surgical options available for the treatment of atypical fascial pain are radiofrequency Rhizotomy, glycerol Rhizotomy and balloon compression. Radiofrequency Rhizotomy is currently use in Pakistan. Studies have shown that it is less costly with minimal complication rate as compared with the other surgical interventions. But up till now, no study has been conducted in Pakistan to assess its efficacy
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of RFR for atypical facial pain syndrome in terms of complete pain relief
Study Design: It is a descriptive case series. Period of study: One year from 01-12-2016 to 30-11-2017
Place of Study: Department of Neurosurgery Lahore General Hospital [LGH] Lahore
Methods: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of RFR for Atypical Facial Pain syndrome in terms of complete pain relief. It is a descriptive case Series. Research was conducted at Department of Neurosurgery, Lahore General Hospital Lahore. Duration of study was 1 year. This study involved 38 patients of both genders aged between 35 to 75 years diagnosed case of Atypical fascial pain syndrome for more than 12 months. All the patients were assessed per operatively according to functional pain score
Results: The mean age of the patients was 49.47+/-11.92 years and there were 15 [39.5 percent] male and 23 [60.5 percent] female patients in the study group. Most of the patients were aged between 30-40 years [28.9 percent]. The duration of pain ranged from 7 months to 15 months with a mean of 10.74+/-2.34 months. The functional pain score before the treatment ranged from 2 to 5 with a mean of 3.84+/-1.00 while the function pain score after treatment ranged from 0-3 with a mean of 1.50+/-.73. The frequency of patients with pain relief was 47.4 percent
Conclusion: Pain relief was observed in 18 [47.4 percent] patients, 6 weeks after treatment. The frequency of pain relief was insignificantly lower with increasing duration and severity of pain at admission