Neoplastic trigeminal neuropathy: presentation of 7 cases.

Trigeminal neuropathy of neoplastic origin accounts for a small percentage of trigeminal neuropathies, though the prognosis may be very poor. It is important to discard neoplastic processes in patients with numbness of the trigeminal territory. We present 7 cases of trigeminal neuropathy secondary to tumors: in four cases there were antecedents of systemic neoplastic disease, while in the remaining three cases neuropathy was the first manifestation of the tumor. The lesion was located in the mandible in three cases, in the region of the skull base in one patient, and in the brainstem and brain in one case each. In one case the lesion level could not be identified. The course was very poor in 5 cases. Recovery was only recorded in one patient in whom the symptoms were seen to disappear after acoustic nerve neurinoma resection. The lesions underlying neoplastic trigeminal neuropathy can be located at any point along the trajectory of the trigeminal nerve, and their prognosis is very poor.