Controlled thermocoagulation of trigeminal ganglion and rootlets for differential destruction of pain fibers: facial pain other than trigeminal neuralgia.

I describe the results of retrogasserian differential lidocaine block to aid in the selection of patients for a differential thermal lesion in the trigeminal ganglion and rootlets. This procedure temporarily duplicates the state of analgesia without anesthesia one seeks to make permanent with the radiofrequency heating. The results of this heating procedure are described in the treatment of 71 patients with facial pain of cancer, postherpetic, periodic migrainous neuralgia, acromegaly, trigeminal neuropathy, central pain, post-traumatic facial neuralgia, and atypical facial neuralgia.

[1]  E. Perl,et al.  Response of cutaneous sensory units with unmyelinated fibers to noxious stimuli. , 1969, Journal of neurophysiology.

[2]  S. Goldring,et al.  The effect of radiofrequency current and heat on peripheral nerve action potential in the cat. , 1968, Journal of neurosurgery.

[3]  Henderson Wr.  The anatomy of the gasserian ganglion and the distribution of pain in relation to injections and operations for trigeminal neuralgia. , 1965 .

[4]  T. Perl,et al.  Precise alcoholic Gasserian injection for tic douloureux1 , 1965 .

[5]  A. Jefferson.  Trigeminal root and ganglion injections using phenol in glycerine for the relief of trigeminal neuralgia , 1963, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[6]  R. Thurel.  [Facial neuralgia and tumor of the cerebellopontile angle]. , 1961, Revue neurologique (Paris).

[7]  R. Thurel.  [Neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve and peripheral facial spasm]. , 1961, Revue neurologique (Paris).

[8]  R. Jaeger.  The results of injecting hot water into the gasserian ganglion for the relief of tic douloureux. , 1959, Journal of neurosurgery.

[9]  R. Pudenz,et al.  Compression rather than decompression for trigeminal neuralgia. , 1955, Journal of neurosurgery.

[10]  J. Penman.  Some developments in the technique of trigeminal injection. , 1953, Lancet.

[11]  I. Tasaki,et al.  Action currents in single afferent nerve fibres elicited by stimulation of the skin of the toad and the cat , 1952, The Journal of physiology.

[12]  W. Tonnis,et al.  [Importance of careful differential diagnosis for surgical therapy of trigeminus neuralgia]. , 1951, Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift.

[13]  W. Harris.  AN ANALYSIS OF 1,433 CASES OF PAROXYSMAL TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA (TRIGEMINAL-TIC) AND THE END-RESULTS OF GASSERIAN ALCOHOL INJECTION , 1940 .

[14]  Y. Zotterman.  Touch, pain and tickling: an electro‐physiological investigation on cutaneous sensory nerves , 1939, The Journal of physiology.

[15]  W. Harris.  Three Cases of Alcohol Injection of the Gasserian Ganglion for Trigeminal Neuralgia. , 1912, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[16]  D. May.  Letter: Forceps for breech delivery. , 1974, Lancet.

[17]  W. Sweet,et al.  Pain and the neurosurgeon : a forty-year experience , 1969 .

[18]  S. Thiry.  [Personal experience based on 225 cases of essential neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve treated by sterotactic electrocoagulation of the gasserian ganglion between 1950 and 1960]. , 1962, Neuro-Chirurgie.