Facial pain. II. A prospective survey of 1052 patients with a view of: character of the attacks, onset, course, and character of pain.
The material, definition, delimitation, and classification of facial pain, general data, hereditary conditions, and previous diseases have been discussed in a preceding study. According to the character of the attacks the material has been classified into TTN = Typical Trigeminal Neuralgia (1/4), ATN = Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia (1/4), and NNFP = Non-neuralgiform Facial Pain (1/2). The typical Trigeminal Neuralgia is a transitory, shooting pain, well defined. The other two groups are less well defined. The patients come to be treated by specialists 1-5 years after the onset of pain. The oral cavity is often perceived as the origin of the pain. A systematic examination shows that demonstrable pathological diseases in the masticatory organs are rarely connected with the pain condition. Dental treatment has provided poor results. Facial pain is a very constant phenomenon which does not- or only to a negligible degree--change over an agelong course. In the present material 8 characters of pain are used: Shooting-cutting, boring, squeezing-pressing, throbbing-hammering, dull, burning-smarting, prickling-sticking, paraesthetic. With the exception of a few cases of apoplexy and herpes zoster there is no pain reaction which can be referred to on an aethilogical basis.
Rasmussen
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University Clinics of Neurosurgery, Aarhus Municipal Hospital, Denmark.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination / Q000379:methods; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014277:Trigeminal Neuralgia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*