الفهرس 
Indroduction and aim of the workOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 131 |  |  |
| | | from | 131 | | |
Abstract
Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN), often called ?tic douloureux? is one of the most painful and debilitating craniofacial pain disorders. TN was not well described in ancient medicine, and not until the eleventh century did the first description of this problem reach the medical literature. TN is characterized by paroxysms of sever, lancinating, ?electriclike? bouts of pain. It is either idiopathic(primary), or secondary due to structural lesion involving the trigeminal system, or associated with some other neurological process. Idiopathic TN is the most common cephalic neuralgia in people over fifty years of age, with a mean annual incidence of 4 per 100,000 population. TN is predominantly unilateral, has tactile ?trigger? areas, dose not produce a neurosensory or motor deficit, and is restricted to the distribution of the trigeminal nerve. Pain attack occur spontaneously, as well as being triggered by a mechanical tactile stimulus to the skin, intra oral mucosa surrounding the teeth, or tongue. TN usually has an exacerbation and remitting course. TN is more common on the right side of face, in those over the age of 40, and in females. The second and third divisions are the most commonly affected, with isolated ophthalmic division involvement being rare. The current treatment of idiopathic TN consists of medical and surgical therapies. When considering surgical treatment for TN, there are several procedures that are currently utilized : percutaneous radiofrequency thermal rhizotomy, glycerol rhizolysis, balloon compression of the trigeminal ganglion, posterior fossa exploration and microvascular decompression and more recently gamma knife radio surgery . So in this essay I compared between the above different surgical modalities used in trigeminal neuralgia treatment based on efficacy, side effects and complications .