title: Spontaneous electromyographic activity during microvascular decompression in trigeminal neuralgia.
abstract: Intraoperative monitoring of spontaneous facial nerve electromyographic activity during surgery for microvascular decompression in trigeminal neuralgia was evaluated. Fifteen patients with trigeminal neuralgia underwent surgery for microvascular decompression. During the entire operation, free-running facial nerve electromyographic signals were recorded. The data were analyzed with respect to waveform patterns known from vestibular schwannoma-surgery. Special regard was given to the occurrence of A-trains that are associated with postoperative paresis in patients operated on vestibular schwannoma. The spectrum of the observed activities matched patterns known from surgery of vestibular schwannoma; even A-trains, a pattern known to be an indicator of postoperative deterioration of facial nerve function (Romstöck et al., J Neurosurg 2000;93:586-593), were seen in 3 of the 15 patients with trigeminal neuralgia. The quantity of A-trains observed was much less than it is known from patients operated on tumors of the cerebellopontine angle. None of the trigeminal neuralgia-patients experienced postoperative deterioration of facial nerve function. The present study shows that A-trains do not only occur during tumor surgery, but also during procedures with indirect manipulation of the facial nerve. They do not necessarily lead to postoperative paresis as long as certain thresholds concerning amount and length of these A-trains are not exceeded.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany. julian.prell@medizin.uni-halle.de
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prell
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rampp
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rachinger
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheller
authors.forename: Ramin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Naraghi
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Strauss
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019299:Decompression, Surgical / Q000379:methods*; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014277:Trigeminal Neuralgia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*