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Radiosurgery versus Microsurgery for Trigeminal Neuralgia

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Current Techniques in Neurosurgery

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There are several effective medications for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN), but side effects, toxicity, and decreasing effectiveness of medical therapy often lead to consideration of surgical treatment. Microvascular decompression is successful in relieving TN in over 90% of patients; however, the procedure requires a posterior fossa craniotomy, hasabout a 1% mortality rate, and a significant morbidity rate that includes facial sensory loss, unilateral hearing loss, other cranial nerve palsies, cerebellar infarction, posterior fossa hematoma, and meningitis, among other complications associated with microsurgical treatment of TN. Radiosurgery with the Gamma knife was first used to treat trigeminal neuralgia in the 1950s. There was little interest in this method until recently, when modern magnetic resonance imaging began to allow relatively easy visualization of the trigeminal nerve root. Increasing experience with Gamma knife radiosurgery in the treatment of/ trigeminal neuralgia suggests that the procedure is nearly/as effective as microvascular decompression.

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Authors
  1. Ronald F Young
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Michael Salcman MD, FACS (Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery, Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery) (Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery, Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery)

  2. Sinai Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Michael Salcman MD, FACS (Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery, Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery) (Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery, Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery)

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© 1998 Current Medicine, Inc.

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Young, R.F. (1998). Radiosurgery versus Microsurgery for Trigeminal Neuralgia. In: Salcman, M. (eds) Current Techniques in Neurosurgery. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9350-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9350-4_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-9352-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-9350-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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