title: CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgical rhizotomy for refractory trigeminal neuralgia.
abstract: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has been established as an option for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Here, we report our experience of CyberKnife®-based (Accuray, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) stereotactic rhizotomy on medically refractory patients to determine its clinical effectiveness. Between January 2007 and December 2009, 14 selected patients underwent SRS for TN at our CyberKnife Center. Patients were evaluated for pain relief using a visual analog scale (VAS) score, time to reach pain relief (latency), duration of pain control, decrease of pain medication, occurrence of new dysesthesia, and side effects at the 3-month, 6-month, 1-year and 2-year follow-up. A literature analysis revealed that compared with other SRS systems, which can provide a high rate of pain control, CyberKnife® stereotactic rhizotomy yielded an earlier onset of pain relief in our cohort.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Surgery, National Defense Medical Center/Tri-service General Hospital, No. 325, Sec. 2, Cheng-Kung Road, Nei-hu District, Taipei 11490, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chi-Tun
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Steven D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Kuan-Yin
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.forename: Ming-Ying
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Da-Tong
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Ju
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019051:Rhizotomy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014277:Trigeminal Neuralgia / Q000601:surgery*