What is the number one pain in the world?

  Trigeminal neuralgia is known as the “world’s first pain” and is characterized by facial tearing, electric shock, lightning, stabbing, cutting or burning pain. It can be triggered by chewing, eating, drinking, wind, cold, brushing teeth, washing face, talking and other actions. After the seizure period one as normal, with the prolongation of the disease, the frequency of seizures increases, the pain level gradually increases, the natural interval is gradually shortened or even the whole day seizure, which brings great pain to patients. Because the painful site is located in two lower trigeminal branches, it is often misdiagnosed as a dental disease, resulting in patients receiving unnecessary dental treatment and even causing some irreversible damage.  Trigeminal neuralgia tends to occur suddenly and with time, pain relief becomes shorter and pain episodes longer. 65% of patients who are diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia for the first time will have a second episode no more than 5 years later, and 77% of patients will have a second trigeminal neuralgia within 10 years.  All drugs currently available for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia were not originally developed for the indication of trigeminal neuralgia; most were for epilepsy, and currently recognized antiepileptic drugs (e.g., carbamazepine) have significant efficacy for trigeminal neuralgia. However, however, most patients have side effects after taking antiepileptic drugs that manifest themselves mainly affecting the central nervous system, such as fatigue, poor concentration, and a high risk of drug interactions, and over time, some patients experience ineffectiveness of antiepileptic drugs for trigeminal neuralgia, then patients should consider neurosurgery.  Trigeminal neuralgia surgery is generally divided into two categories: one is palliative destruction; the other is microvascular decompression, which is a theoretical surgical treatment for this disease by using minimally invasive techniques to directly and reliably separate the nerve from the “responsible vessel” within the skull. As a type of minimally invasive neurosurgery with a high degree of delicacy, its standardized operation technique is very important to improve the efficiency of the operation and reduce complications.  Gamma Knife treatment uses the stereotactic principle to focus many small beams of gamma rays on the trigeminal nerve root in all directions, mainly for elderly and frail patients of advanced age, as well as patients who cannot tolerate surgery. There are also secondary options such as cryotherapy, neurectomy, and alcohol blockade.