Treatments’ Outcomes of Patients Suffered from Trigeminal Neuralgia in Kerman, Iran

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) presents with a shooting pain in maxillofacial region which compels the involved patients to visit many medical and dental physicians to relieve the pain. Hence, assessing the outcomes of different treatment modalities may help the patients and their clinicians choose a suitable practical method of treatment. PURPOSE The study was aimed to evaluate the outcomes of different treatments of TN and to determine which surgical or non-surgical treatment is better for controlling the pain. MATERIALS AND METHOD This study included 42 patients with trigeminal neuralgia. A questionnaire was completed for each patient in order to evaluate the pain control status of patients' treatment with non-surgical (pharmaceutical) and surgical modalities. The questionnaire consisted of questions on an datasheet , concerning the duration of involvement with the condition, type and dose of the medication(s) used, the surgical technique administrated, patient satisfaction with the treatment modality and the intensity and frequency of the pain if present. The purpose of the study and the necessary information regarding the questions of the data sheet was given in detail to the patients for a careful completion of the questionnaires. Data was analyzed by adopting t-test using SPSS software. RESULTS The results showed that the patients treated with pharmaceutical modalities had relatively lower improvement rate than those treated with surgery combined with medication (p< 0.035). Carbamazepine was the most consumed medication for pain control and the microvascular decompression was the most performed surgical method in patients. CONCLUSION Although medication therapy alone was less effective than surgery combined with medication, both treatment modalities were significantly effective in controlling the pain of patients.