Highlights
- •RFT of the peripheral nerves and the Gasserian ganglion both will have satisfactory pain relive.
- •Peripheral nerve ablation was associated with higher recurrent rate.
- •RFT of the Gasserian ganglion was associated with more complication.
Abstract
Background
Trigeminal neuralgia is characterized by pain at the distribution of one or more of
the trigeminal nerve branches and is usually treated with anti-epileptic medication.
When first line treatment fails, patients receive other treatment modalities including
radiofrequency thermoablation (RFT) of the Gasserian ganglion and peripheral branches
of the trigeminal nerve. The aim of this study is to compare RFT of the Gasserian
ganglion and peripheral branches of trigeminal nerve in terms of efficacy and rate
of complications.
Methods
This was a systematic review and meta-analysis that searched Medline, Cochrane Central
Register of Controlled Trials, and Embase using Medical Subject Headings and the references
of the enrolled studies with no restriction on date. We included only RCTs that compared
the RFT of the Gasserian ganglion and peripheral branches of trigeminal nerve with
one of the following outcomes: pain scales, immediate effective rate, recurrence rate,
and complications.
Results
Five articles were eligible for our review and showed that there was no difference
between RFT of the peripheral nerves and the Gasserian ganglion in terms of pain scores.
There was a non-significant trend for RFT of the peripheral nerve to have higher immediate
effect rates and higher recurrence rates. RFT of the Gasserian ganglion group was
associated with masticatory weakness, while the other group was associated with facial
swelling and numbness of V2.
Conclusion
RFT of the peripheral branches is a safe and effective method to treat idiopathic
trigeminal neuralgia but leads to a higher recurrence rate when compared with RFT
of the Gasserian ganglion.
Keywords
Abbreviations:
TN (Trigeminal neuralgia), RFT (Radiofrequency thermoablation), MVD (Microvascular decompression), PRF (Peripheral nerves radiofrequency thermoablation), GPF (Gasserian ganglion radiofrequency thermoablation)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
August 3,
2022
Received:
February 22,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
