Long-term pain outcomes for recurrent idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia after stereotactic radiosurgery: a prospective comparison of first-time microvascular decompression and repeat stereotactic radiosurgery

摘要

OBJECTIVE Microvascular decompression (MVD) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) are common surgical treatments for trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Many patients who receive SRS have pain recurrence; the ideal second intervention is unknown. The authors directly compared pain outcomes after MVD and repeat SRS in a population of patients in whom SRS failed as their first-line procedure for TN, and they identified predictors of pain control.