For people who suffer from trigeminal neuralgia, radiosurgery is a non-invasive radiation technique that is a safe and effective treatment. Trigeminal neuralgia is a condition that consists of episodes of intense stabbing pain in the face and neck.
X-rays are taken and they locate the place where highly focused beams of radiation should be placed. Radiosurgery seems to improve trigeminal neuralgia by selectively destroying nerves that carry pain signals.
Radiosurgery has typically been limited to treat people who have shown no improvement of trigeminal neuralgia after conventional surgery has failed. In recent years however, radiosurgery has started to be offered as the main therapy for the condition.
In the current study, radiosurgery was performed on 22 patients with trigeminal neuralgia. All of the patients in the study had all failed to respond to drug therapy.
After a follow up after 21 months, pain relief was rated as excellent for 15 patients, good for 6, and poor for 1, yielding a total success rate of 95.4 percent. Generally the reduction in pain occurred 3 months after the procedure. Five patients experienced pain recurrence, but in generally in all cases, the pain was less than before.
The results showed that the use of the available radiosurgery technique is a good first option for people who suffer from this condition. It should be noted that radiosurgery is not suitable for patients will suffer from severe acute pain episodes.