Pain Session-Duration of Trigeminal Neuralgia Symptoms does not Influence Pain Free Outcomes after Microvascular Decompression

Duration of Trigeminal Neuralgia Symptoms does not Influence Pain Free Outcomes after Microvascular Decompression

Video Transcription

Video Summary

In this video, Matthew Pease, a PGY5 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, presents research on trigeminal neuralgia and its treatment with microvascular decompression. He explains that the timing of surgery and its relation to outcomes is controversial, with many patients waiting several years before evaluation. Pease discusses the success rates of different interventions and presents a study he conducted, which found that patients who underwent surgery within one year of symptom onset had worse outcomes compared to those with longer symptom duration. He emphasizes the need for earlier referrals to improve surgical candidacy and highlights the limitations of their retrospective study. Pease concludes by thanking Dr. Sekula and Dr. Flickinger for their assistance.

Keywords

trigeminal neuralgia

microvascular decompression

timing of surgery

outcomes

surgical candidacy