title: Proposed operation for occipital neuralgia: C-2 and C-3 root decompression. Case report.
abstract: The common association of occipital neuralgia with post-traumatic cervical arthritis raises the question of whether some cases of occipital neuralgia are due to delayed C-2 or C-3 root entrapment. This hypothesis led to surgical exploration of the C-3 and C-2 roots in a young patient with post-traumatic arthritic occipital neuralgia. The abnormal operative findings and resolution of the neuralgia after C-3 foraminal and C-2 fascial root decompression lead to the tentative proposal that some cases of occipital neuralgia represent a root entrapment syndrome amenable to neurosurgical decompression.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009408:Nerve Compression Syndromes / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D009778:Occipital Lobe; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011859:Radiography; D013126:Spinal Nerve Roots / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*