Bruce E. Pollock, M.D.
Department of Neurological Surgery
Mayo Clinic
200 First Street SW
Rochester, MN 55905
507-538-1564
http://www.mayoclinic.org/bio/12701661.html
Transcript: Usefulness of Radiosurgery for trigeminal neuralgia
I think over the last decade, we’ve gathered a large amount of information on the usefulness of Radiosurgery for trigeminal neuralgia. Over this decade, we’ve done a variety of dose escalations, studies where we give more radiation to the nerve. We’ve tried different targets. We’ve used different lengths of nerve being irradiated. And really what it comes down to in my mind is that it remains a destructive technique similar to glycerol rhizotomy or radiofrequency procedures and that if we can give you some degree of acceptable numbness, the success rate is very good.
The downside is it’s a non-selective procedure meaning we can not predict whether you’ll have numbness on your forehead or around your eye or just around your mouth. So I think when we talk about this procedure, I believe with modern dosymetry, we can make about 60% of people pain-free, off medications if they’ve never had surgery before. And probably with a risk of less than 5% significant facial numbness.