Jonathan White, M.D.
Department of Neurological Surgery
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5303 Harry Hines Blvd.
4th Floor, Suite 100
Dallas, TX 75390-9167
214-645-2300
www.tiny.cc/jonathanwhite
Transcript: Microvascular decompression surgery for non-classic trigeminal neuralgia patient
What about surgery for face pain that’s not classic trigeminal neuralgia? This has been a difficult area to understand because we don’t understand all the causes of face pain as well as we think we understand trigeminal neuralgia.
I mentioned earlier, the characteristics of trigeminal neuralgia. The electric like shock pain, the pain on one side of the face, pain that you can trigger and as you deviate from these features to constant pain, pain which is burning, pain which is on both sides of the face, you deviate from the diagnosis of classic trigeminal neuralgia.
Many surgeons have tried over the years the classic procedures for trigeminal neuralgia on these atypical patients. On occasion, people do get better having a microvascular decompression or a Gamma Knife with these unusual types of face pain but for the most part these procedures lead to disappointing results with these unusual types of face pain.
Hopefully in the future we’ll develop better surgical techniques for these unusual types of face pain. People have tried deep brain stimulation and motor cortex stimulation and these techniques are being developed to alleviate pain that is not classic trigeminal neuralgia.