Balloon rhizotomy treatment for trigeminal neuralgia

No single surgical procedure can achieve lasting pain relief in all patients with trigeminal neuralgia. Percutaneous balloon compression trigeminal rhizotomy is an alternative outpatient procedure for patients in whom open operation or other percutaneous procedures are infeasible or have failed. The instrumentation required and a stepwise description of the procedure are given. Limited information on results is available, but suggest that approximately 95% of patients will get immediate relief of their pain with a median duration of pain estimated between 20 and 28 months. As many as 20% of patients may remain pain free and off medication at 5 years. Serious complications are rare but include meningitis, hemorrhage, extensive facial dysesthesia or analgesia and cranial nerve dysfunction.