Clinical efficacy and safety of microvascular decompression in treating elderly patients with hemifacial spasm

Abstract

Objective To investigate the curative effect and safety of microvascular decompression (MVD) for hemifacial spasm (HFS) in elderly patients.Methods Three hundred and fifty-one patients with HFS,admitted to our hospital from 2006 to 2011 and underwent MVD,were chosen in our study; among them,44 patients older than 65 years were chosen as elderly group and the other as young group.The complications and the cure rates were evaluated and compared between the elderly group and the young group.Results No significant statistical differences on gender,location of the lesions,hospitalization time and offending vessels were noted between the elderly and young groups (P＞0.05).However,significant statistical difference on both age and diease duration was noted between the two groups (P＜0.05).The overall cure rate was 97.7％ for elderly patients and 97.1％ for young patients.Permanent neurological deficits,such as hearing loss and facial paralysis appeared in one of the elderly patients (2.27％,1/44) and 5 patients of the young group (1.63％,5/307).No death case was noted.Conclusion MVD is the most effective operation treatment for HFS; no higher rate of complications and mortality in treating elderly patients with HFS is conformed as compared with that in young patients;any patients with HFS,as long as their general health condition can tolerate general anesthesia,are supposed to undergo MVD. Key words: Microvascular decompression; Hemifacial spasm; Elderly patient