Who is a candidate for trigeminal neuralgia surgery?
Surgical evaluation for trigeminal neuralgia includes confirming the diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia, reviweing a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to exclude other treatable causes of face pain, and evaluating the severity of the pain, the general medical condition of the patient, and the patient’s preference for treatment goals versus risk aversion. Trigeminal neuralgia surgery is reserved for people who still experience debilitating pain despite best medical management. Surgery for trigeminal neuralgia should never be attempted on patients with non-trigeminal neuralgia face pain or on atypical trigeminal neuralgia*; operations for these conditions have much lower success rates and in many cases can make the pain worse and/or cause aditional medical problems.
