Treatment of atypical trigeminal neuralgia with microvascular decompression.

AIM To explore the methods for achieving pain relief in patients with atypical trigeminal neuralgia (TN) using microvascular decompression (MVD). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTINGS Retrospective study of 26 patients treated during the years 2000 to 2004. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-six patients in whom vascular compression of the trigeminal nerve was identified by high definition magnetic resonance tomographic angiography (MRTA) were treated with MVD for atypical TN in our department. Clinical presentations, surgical findings and clinical outcomes were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS In this study, single trigeminal division was involved in only 2 patients (8%) and two or three divisions in the other 24 patients (92%). Of prime importance is the fact that in 46.2% of the patients, several conflicting vessels were found in association. Location of the conflicts around the circumference of the trigeminal root was supero-medial to the root in 53.5%, supero-lateral in 30.8% and inferior in 15.7%. MVD for atypical TN resulted in complete pain relief in 50% of the patients with complete decompression, partial pain relief in 30.8% and poor pain relief or pain recurrence in 19.2% of the patients without complete decompression postoperatively. CONCLUSIONS Complete decompression of the entire trigeminal root plays an important role in achieving pain relief in patients with atypical TN with MVD.