Dual-targeted treatment for trigeminal neuralgia

  In order to explore the use of dual target to improve the technique of gamma knife for trigeminal neuralgia, improve the efficiency and reduce the recurrence rate, the investigators treated 55 patients with dual target of gamma knife and 9 cases were lost to follow-up. 87% of the patients had a history of preoperative surgery. One target was placed at the trigeminal nerve root near the pontine brain and the other at the proximal hemimelia, with a central dose of 84-90 Gy, a peripheral dose of 42-45 Gy, and a critical dose of 20 Gy in the pontine brain. results were followed up for 4-72 months (mean 30 months). Postoperative pain disappeared from 2h-16 months (mean 4 months). The overall effectiveness rate, as scored by pain relief, was 95.7% at the follow-up time point, and the incidence of complications such as abnormal facial sensation was 10.8%. Certain factors were statistically analyzed to correlate with efficacy. It is evident that treatment of trigeminal neuralgia with dual-target gamma knife has a higher success rate and lower recurrence rate than single-target because of the increased radiation capacity, and the complication rate is similar to that of dual-target. It is especially worth mentioning that the superiority of dual-target treatment over single-target treatment is more obvious when the patient has a history of preoperative injections along the trigeminal nerve.