Konstantin Slavin, M.D.
Department of Neurosurgery
University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago
912 S. Wood Street, 4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60612
312-996-4842
http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcns/KSlavin.htm
Transcript: Selection of patients for treatment of facial pain surgery
The selection of patients probably one of the most difficult issues in treatment of facial pain. And therefore, I’m generally reluctant to ask patients to chose the procedure for them unless I’ve already given them a choice based on my impression of their pain and the options available for certain condition.
So the question that frequently comes up is whether or not patients a candidate for microvascular decompression or motor cortex stimulation. And these are the things that are really hard for patients to establish without consultation with experienced specialist.
One of the things that people have tried and I have definitely tested it in my clinical settings is a questionnaire that is available on the web from Oregon Health and Science University. That’s a facial pain questionnaire that allows patient to come up with a general idea of their diagnosis. It seems to be particularly helpful in diagnosing the true trigeminal neuralgia. Where other syndromes in probably less obvious or less apparent pretty much similar to what we see in clinical practice.
So I am, once again, I try to discourage patients to select their treatment without discussing it with their physicians first and then I frequently end up trying to explain to the patient why he or she is not a candidate for the procedure they already had in mind for themselves because clinical picture unfortunately dictates what kind of surgeries will be more effective or more appropriate for each particular candidate.