Surgical treatment of recurrent trigeminal neuralgia.

In this retrospective investigation 7 patients operated on for recurrent trigeminal neuralgia via a suboccipital enlarged burr hole trepanation were evaluated. The intraoperative findings indicate that neo-compressive effects due to foreign material used during prior surgery are more important than adhesions around the nerve. Furthermore, the results of recurrent operations are encouraging as 6 of the 7 patients were painfree without additional neurological deficits.