Tratamiento quirúrgico de la neuralgia del trigémino: Experiencia en 10 años / Surgical treatment of trigeminal neuralgia: A 10 years experience

ABSTRACT

Introduction. Surgical treatment of trigeminal neuralgia remains a matter of debate since there are no studies comparing long term effectiveness of the different surgical techniques. We present our 10 year experience. Description. Series: 40 patients. Period: 1998 - 2008. Surgical techniques: microvascular decompression, radiofrequency thermorhizotomy and balloon compression. Analyzed parameters: age, sex, nerve root involved, pain relief, recurrence, complications, need to restart medication and reintervention. Discussion. Microvascular decompression offers better long term results, radiofrequency is adequate for special cases (higher recurrence rate), and balloon compression is better for V1 neuralgia. Our sample is too small for statistics, yet our findings are coincident with the literature. Conclusion. Better patient selection criteria for each technique are needed. Microvascular decompression should be the treatment of choice when possible. How to treat recurrence remains unanswered.