[Clinical significance of trigeminal neuralgia treated using radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFT) with different approaches].
OBJECTIVE
The authors presented the short term and long term effects of the trigeminal neuralgia treated by RFT with anterior-lateral facial, lateral facial and trans-subzygomatic approaches.


METHODS
320 primary patients with trigeminal neuralgia were selected for this study. All these patients were followed up with the period of 1 to 6 years.


RESULTS
The first-time effective ratios of pain-relieve treated by using the anterior-lateral facial approach, and the lateral facial and the trans-subzygomatic, were 93.3% and 73.3% respectively. Most of the patients (92.5%) achieved excellent or good pain-relieve after treated by one of these three approaches. Compared with the lateral facial and trans-subzygomatic procedures, the anterior-lateral facial approach caused less recurrent rate in long term effects (P < 0.01). The late recurrence was found in 93 patients, but pain-relieve effect still could be obtained by retreating with the former method and without difficulty or hazard. One patient had serious Rollets syndrome.


CONCLUSIONS
It is concluded that the anterior-lateral approach is a method with more effective pain-relieve and less pain recurrence rate, and the trans-subzygomatic method can be used as a substitutive approach in the treatment of the second branch of trigeminal neuralgia.
Chen
Z
Z
Department of Stomatology, Chengdu Army General Hospital.
Zhao
Z
Z
Li
M
M
Yang
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017115:Catheter Ablation; D004564:Electrocoagulation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D014277:Trigeminal Neuralgia / Q000601:surgery*