Percutaneous radio-frequency rhizotomy in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.

A percutaneous technique of selective partial trigeminal root coagulation was evaluated in the treatment of 38 patients suffering from trigeminal neuralgia, 1 patient with pain secondary to oral carcinoma and 1 patient with atypical facial pain. The pain of trigeminal neuralgia was relieved in 94.7 percent of patients. Pain was relieved in the patient with oral carcinoma, but not in the patient with atypical facial pain. There was no mortality and no permanent morbidity outside of the trigeminal nerve lesion. The procedure requires only a brief hospital stay without the time, expense and hazards of open cranial surgical procedures.