Abstract
Cranial nerve neuralgia usually occurs sporadically. Nonetheless, familial cases of trigeminal neuralgia are not uncommon with a reported incidence of 1–2%, suggestive of an autosomal dominant inheritance. In contrast, familial occipital neuralgia is rarely reported with only one report in the literature. We present a Chinese family with five cases of occipital and nervus intermedius neuralgia alone or in combination in three generations. All persons afflicted with occipital neuralgia have suffered from paroxysmal ‘electric wave’-like pain for years. In the first generation, the father (index patient) was affected, in the second generation all his three daughters (with two sons spared) and in the third generation a daughter’s male offspring is affected. This familial pattern suggests an X-linked dominant or an autosomal dominant inheritance mode.
Highlights
Occipital neuralgia (ON) refers to a paroxysmal stabbing pain, with or without persistent aching between paroxysms, in the distributions of the greater or lesser occipital nerves [11]
We present a Chinese family with five cases of occipital and nervus intermedius neuralgia alone or in combination in three generations
We present a Chinese family with five cases of occipital and nervus intermedius neuralgia alone or in combination in three generations, suggestive of an X-linked dominant (XLD) or an autosomal dominant (AD) inheritance mode
Summary
Familial neuralgia of occipital and intermedius nerves in a Chinese family Yu Wang • Chuan-Yong Yu • Lin Huang • Franz Riederer • Dominik Ettlin Received: 10 March 2011 / Accepted: 26 April 2011 / Published online: 24 May 2011 Ó The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
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