[Clinical significance of trigeminal neuralgia treated using radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFT) with different approaches].

OBJECTIVE

The authors presented the short term and long term effects of the trigeminal neuralgia treated by RFT with anterior-lateral facial, lateral facial and trans-subzygomatic approaches.

METHODS

320 primary patients with trigeminal neuralgia were selected for this study. All these patients were followed up with the period of 1 to 6 years.

RESULTS

The first-time effective ratios of pain-relieve treated by using the anterior-lateral facial approach, and the lateral facial and the trans-subzygomatic, were 93.3% and 73.3% respectively. Most of the patients (92.5%) achieved excellent or good pain-relieve after treated by one of these three approaches. Compared with the lateral facial and trans-subzygomatic procedures, the anterior-lateral facial approach caused less recurrent rate in long term effects (P < 0.01). The late recurrence was found in 93 patients, but pain-relieve effect still could be obtained by retreating with the former method and without difficulty or hazard. One patient had serious Rollets syndrome.

CONCLUSION

It is concluded that the anterior-lateral approach is a method with more effective pain-relieve and less pain recurrence rate, and the trans-subzygomatic method can be used as a substitutive approach in the treatment of the second branch of trigeminal neuralgia.