Sleep Disorders: Is the Trigemino-Cardiac Reflex a Missing Link?

Sleep Disorders: Is the Trigemino-Cardiac Reflex a Missing Link?

Trigeminal innervated areas in face, nasolacrimal, and nasal mucosa can produce a wide array of cardiorespiratory manifestations that include apnea, bradypnea, bradycardia, hypotension, and arrhythmias. This reflex is a well-known entity called "trigemino-cardiac reflex" (TCR). The role of TCR is investigated in various pathophysiological conditions especially in neurosurgical, but also skull b...

Chronic Trigemino-Cardiac Reflex: An Underestimated Truth

The trigemino-cardiac reflex (TCR) is a brainstem reflex that manifests as adverse cardiorespiratory events upon the stimulation of sensory branches of the fifth cranial nerve. This reflex is mainly investigated in different neurosurgical procedures and intervention. This reflex is commonly considered as an acute and mild physiological response. On the other hand, more devastating and chronic n...

Topical lidocaine to suppress trigemino-cardiac reflex.

The trigemino-cardiac reflex: a view to the future

After the trigemino-cardiac reflex (TCR) was first described by the senior author in 1999 [1], it resolved one of the great problems and mysteries in neurosurgery. In the meantime, several other groups have published their results about the TCR, but there still remain a lot of questions about this reflex that are currently unresolved. Our group has recently published an important update of the ...

Cardiac autonomic control in neurosurgery the example of trigemino-cardiac reflex

The trigemino-cardiac reflex (TCR) is defined as the sudden onset of parasympathetic dysrhythmia, sympathetic hypotension, apnoea or gastric hypermotility during stimulation of any of the sensory branches of the trigeminal nerve. In the present review, we summarize the knowledge about the TCR in relation to its two different ways of stimulation: (i) peripheral and (ii) central stimulation. We a...