Pain Medicine

Biography

Biography: Preeti P. Doshi

Abstract

Trigeminal Neuralgia is a unique condition in which patient suffers severe distressing paroxysms of lancinating pain along the distribution of one or multiple divisions of the trigeminal pain occurring spontaneously or triggered by trivial daily routine activities like brushing, chewing, shaving etc. It can be of a classic [idiopathic] variety or secondary resulting from an organic pathology in the central nervous system. Pharmacotherapy is the mainstay of treatment in majority of patients as the first line of management with reasonably good results. There is however a small percentage who will not be adequately controlled with medications, where invasive options need to be considered. In the minimally invasive options for patients who are not fit or willing for surgery Radiofrequency Ablation of trigeminal ganglion emerges as the safest and the most efficacious option. This is due to the evidence in the literature which reveals 97-100% success rate with ability for selective lesioning of one or more divisions with some acceptable side-effect profile again with lower incidence as compared to other techniques. At our centre we have performed 600 such procedures over the past 14 years. In this video I have demonstrated the practical technique followed at our centre which yields excellent result.