Microvascular Decompression For Primary Trigeminal Neuralgia:Outcomes Of The Follow-up And Prognostic Factors

Background and Objectives:Microvascular decompression (MVD) is an effective surgical treatment for primary trigeminal neuralgia (TN). But patients with what prognostic factors are more tend to get excellent outcome is still on controversial. This study aim to observe the short-time and long-time results of MVD for primary TN and try to find out the potential prognostic factors.Methods:This prospective cohort study was conducted for all first-time MVDs for primary TN from November2007to June2012. All included patients were followed up at least12months. The possible prognostic factors were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and cox proportional hazard regression analysis.Results:201patients were included in this cohort. All patients were followed up for median28months. About81.1%(163/201) got immediate complete pain relief after the surgery and75.9%(142/187) got complete pain relief till the expiration date. Respective initial and2-year’s complete pain-free rates were81.6%(120/147) and88%(118/134) for typical TN, and79.6%(43/54) and45%(24/53) for atypical TN. The typical symptoms and the immediate excellent outcome after MVD were proved to have a positive effect on long-term pain relief.Conclusions:MVD is an effective surgical candidate for the treatment of typical TN and atypical TN. Patients with typical symptom and immediate complete pain relief after MVD have better long-term prognosis. The degree of pain relief2years after surgery determines the final status.