December 16, 2005 was an extraordinary day for Yao, a patient from Shibian County, Hebei Province. The trigeminal neuralgia that had plagued her for 4 years was finally relieved, and the way to relieve her pain was a surgery: trigeminal nerve microvascular decompression. Trigeminal neuralgia is a common neurological disease with a very high incidence, commonly seen in the elderly, and is characterized by paroxysmal cut-like, pinprick-like and electric shock-like pain in the face, often triggered by the action of brushing teeth and eating. Patients suffering from this disease are in great pain and are afraid to brush their teeth or eat, causing great inconvenience to their lives. The traditional treatment method is to take carbamazepine (painful spasm) and closure therapy, but long-term use of carbamazepine has great side effects, which are harmful to the liver, kidneys and hematopoietic system and cannot be tolerated by patients; while closure therapy generally does not have a long-lasting effect and also leaves behind the problem of facial numbness, even risking eye blindness. Therefore, for a long time, there is no ideal treatment for trigeminal neuralgia, and patients live in pain for a long time. Since the 1970s, foreign studies have shown that the compression of the trigeminal nerve by abnormal intracranial blood vessels is the cause of trigeminal neuralgia; in addition, facial muscle spasm (manifested as involuntary twitching of facial muscles) and the majority of hypertension are also caused by the compression of the cerebral nerve by abnormal intracranial blood vessels. The surgical removal of these compressions can permanently cure these diseases without any sequelae, and this procedure is called cerebral nerve microvascular decompression. In fact, this surgery is not too complicated and can be performed in hospitals with microscopic neurosurgery conditions, and the risks of the surgery are minimal. However, because the Chinese people have always been fearful of surgery, they are generally reluctant to accept this surgery, which makes the operation rarely carried out in China. Through some means, a patient from Shibian County, Hebei, Yao came to the neurosurgery department of the First Affiliated Hospital for treatment. After the MRI examination, it was clear that there was an abnormal blood vessel compressing the trigeminal nerve in the skull. The first case of trigeminal nerve microvascular decompression in the hospital was successfully completed with Associate Professor Zhou Guosheng in charge. The patient’s facial pain disappeared immediately after surgery without any sequelae, and he was discharged after 1 week of hospitalization.