What symptoms can be diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia? Expert: Trigeminal neuralgia is mainly characterized by paroxysmal and severe pain in the area innervated by the trigeminal nerve of the face. It is characterized by episodes of pain that are very intense. The patient feels like a knife cut and electric shock. The pain comes on suddenly, often lasting a few seconds or minutes, and then suddenly relieved. Sometimes the pain is so sudden that the patient lies on the floor and rolls around. This pain has the name of “the world’s first pain”, some patients can not bear it, and even seek suicide. This disease is easy to diagnose but difficult to treat. What are the treatments for trigeminal neuralgia? The first method is medication, which mainly involves patients taking oral analgesic drugs such as carbamazepine, gabapentin, oxcarbazepine, etc., but patients are prone to drug resistance with long-term use. The second method is minimally invasive interventional treatment, also known as trigeminal nerve hemimelia destruction radiofrequency thermal coagulation technique. It is to put a very thin radiofrequency needle into the trigeminal meningeal ganglion, and this needle tip can be heated to 70 to 80 degrees by technological means, causing a slight denaturation of the proteins in the meningeal ganglion so that the pain signal cannot be transmitted. The third method is craniotomy, or microvascular decompression. It is performed by opening the skull to release the compression of the blood vessels on the trigeminal nerve. However, it is more traumatic and more expensive for patients. What kind of patients are suitable for minimally invasive intervention? Experts: patients whose pain cannot be relieved by oral carbamazepine and seriously affects the quality of life; patients with obvious adverse drug reactions to painkillers such as carbamazepine; patients who are too old and weak to tolerate open surgical treatment; patients who are unwilling to undergo open trigeminal nerve vascular decompression; patients who relapse after open trigeminal nerve vascular decompression; patients who relapse after controlled radiofrequency thermocoagulation treatment; patients whose pain is not eliminated or The pain is not eliminated or reduced; trigeminal neuralgia due to tumor, and the pain is not improved by gamma knife or surgical treatment.