[Microvascular decompression as a treatment of essential hypertension].

Microvascular decompression (MVD) proved to be the method of choice in treating trigeminal neuralgia, facial hemispasm, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, and torticollis spastica. So did MVD for the left rostral ventrolateral medulla oblongata and glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves in association with primary arterial hypertension. Five patients with primary essential hypertension were treated with MVD. During a longer follow-up, 75% of the patients had lowered blood pressure. In 2 patients, MVD was performed for trigeminal nerves due to ipsilateral trigeminal neuralgia. This paper presents and analyzes the clinical findings in these 5 patients and discusses the global state-of-the-art of MVD for arterial hypertension.