A facial pain syndrome characterized by paroxysms of pain involving areas innervated by one or more sensory branches of the trigeminal nerve (CN V).<\/p>\n
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Pain is usually described as sharp, stabbing, or \u201celectric shock-like\u201d and can last from seconds to minutes.\u00a0Patient may report particular activities which trigger paroxysms of pain.\u00a0Some of these triggers include touching, face washing, chewing, talking, brushing teeth, and exposure to cold air. Symptoms are usually unilateral but may rarely involve both sides of the face.<\/p>\n
Primary or idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia is caused by compression of the trigeminal nerve root by an aberrant loop of an artery or vein. 80-90% of cases of\u00a0trigeminal neuralgia\u00a0are primary. Secondary causes of TN are due to compression of the nerve root by other structural or infiltrative processes including acoustic neuroma, aneurysms, meningiomas, and epidermoid cysts.<\/p>\n
Diagnosis is usually based upon the presence of typical clinical symptoms.\u00a0Neurological exam should be normal. If sensory loss in the distribution of the trigeminal nerve is present, compressive lesions like a mass should be suspected. Work-up of all patients includes a MRI of the brain to exclude compressive etiologies as mentioned previously.<\/p>\n
Multiple approaches are available for management. Unless a structural lesion (besides vascular loops) is found on neuroimaging, medical therapy is tried first.<\/p>\n
Bajwa, Zahid, M.D. etal. Trigeminal Neuralgia. Uptodate.com \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A facial pain syndrome characterized by paroxysms of pain involving areas innervated by one or more sensory branches of the trigeminal nerve (CN V).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[167,166,164,165,163,162],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n