Are you a Health Professional? Jump over to the doctors only platform. Click Here

Radiosurgery Helps with Painful Nerve Condition

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Radiosurgery, a non-invasive radiation technique, is a safe and effective treatment for selected patients with trigeminal neuralgia, a condition involving episodes of intense stabbing pain in the face and neck, new research suggests.

Radiosurgery, a non-invasive radiation technique, is a safe and effective treatment for selected patients with trigeminal neuralgia, a condition involving episodes of intense stabbing pain in the face and neck, new research suggests. Despite the name, radiosurgery doesn’t involve cutting with a scalpel. Instead, X-rays are taken that pinpoint where the “cutting” is to occur and then highly focused beams of radiation perform the “surgery.” Although not completely understood, radiosurgery seems to improve trigeminal neuralgia by selectively destroying nerves that carry pain signals. As a treatment for trigeminal neuralgia, radiosurgery has typically been limited to patients who have failed conventional surgical therapy, Dr. A. A. De Salles and colleagues, from the University of California at Los Angeles, note. Recently, 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 had failed to respond to drug therapy. The average follow-up period was 21.2 months, and pain relief was assessed by an independent observer. No sedation or hospital admission was required for the radiosurgery treatments, the authors note in the medical journal Neurology. 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, the authors note. On average, pain relief occurred 2.7 months after radiosurgery. Five patients experienced pain recurrence, but in all cases the pain was less severe than before treatment. The procedure was well tolerated and complications were limited to mild sensory problems, the researchers point out. “The results of the present series support the use of the available radiosurgery techniques as a first surgical option,” the authors state. Because it takes about three months for pain relief to occur, radiosurgery is not a suitable choice for patients with acute severe pain episodes, they add. (SOURCE: Neurology, Reuters Health, March 2004.)


Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Dates

Posted On: 4 March, 2004
Modified On: 5 December, 2013


Created by: myVMC