The application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the prediction of surgical outcomes in trigeminal neuralgia

ABSTRACT

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a severe facial pain disorder that often requires surgical treatment. Neurovascular compression (NVC) has been widely accepted as the primary cause of classical TN (cTN). Vascular compression involving the near half of the cisternal segment of trigeminal nerve was the most likely cause of patient’s symptoms. And severe NVC was a strong imaging predictor of an optimal surgical outcome. Operative treatments for cTN include microvascular decompression (MVD) and various ablative procedures. However, a significant proportion of cTN patients with significant NVC fail to achieve long-term pain relief after technically successful surgery. Neuroimaging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a noninvasive method to generate objective biomarkers of eventual response to TN surgery. This paper reviewed the progress of research on the prediction of surgical outcomes in TN with MRI.

KEYWORDS:

• Trigeminal neuralgia
• magnetic resonance imaging
• trigeminal nerve
• microvascular decompression
• outcome prediction

Conflicts of interest

The authors have no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Hebei Province Association of Higher Education, Scientific Research Projects in Higher Education (grant number GJXHZ2019-31).