Efficacy and prognosis of trigeminal neuralgia treated with surgical excision or gamma knife surgery

Abstract

To evaluate the curative effects and complications when using microvascular decompression (MVD) or gamma knife surgery (GKS) to treat trigeminal neuralgia (TN). And to investigate the prognosis for TN after these treatments. Sixty-one TN patients treated using MVD and eighty-six TN patients treated using GKS were enrolled by means of telephone, letter or out-patient recheck; the patients had originally presented from December 1996 to June 2010. A chi-square test was applied to follow-up data on pain relief after 1 month, 6 months and 12 months, and at the final follow-up. One hundred and two patients were followed for 3-151 months. Cumulative pain relief rates at 1, 6, 12 months and at end times were 90.48%, 95.24%, 92.86%, and 95.24%, respectively, for forty-two MVD-treated patients, and 23.33%, 83.33%, 86.67% and 90% for sixty GKS-treated patients, respectively. The effects of two methods for treatment of TN was not statistically different (χ(2) = 2.053, P=0.152). Pain relief rates in the short-term (first month) demonstrated statistically significant differences (P<0.01), but pain relief rates in the long-term showed no significant differences (P>0.05). Immediate pain relief with MVD treatment is higher than with GKS, but in the long term both treatments were comparable.