Clinical application of gabapentin in the treatment of recurrent trigeminal neuralgia

Objective To investigate the clinical application effects of gabapentin in the treatment of recurrent trigeminal neuralgia. Methods 68 patients with recurrent trigeminal neuralgia were chosen as study subjects, and they were divided into control group and research group according to the digital table.The research group was treated with gabapentin, the control group was treated with carbamazepine. After treatment for 4 weeks, the clinical effects, life satisfactory index, pain, drug dosage and adverse reaction between the two group were compared. Results Each group had 32 patients completed the study.The total effective rate of the research group was higher than that of the control group(68.75% vs.59.37%), the difference was not statistically significant(χ2=0.611, P 0.05). At 7 d after treatment, the VAS scores in the research group was lower than that in the control group[(4.09±0.83)points vs.(4.63±0.79)points], the difference was statistically significant (t=2.666, P 0.05). Before treatment and 7 d after treatment, the life satisfaction index B(LSI-B) scores between the two groups had no statistically significant difference(t=0.049, 0.224, all P>0.05). At 14 d and 28 d after treatment, LSI-B scores in the two groups were both increased, which in the research group was higher than taht in the control group[14 d: (15.09±3.68)points vs.(12.91±3.45)points, 28 d: (16.48±3.43)points vs.(13.35±3.14)points], the differences were statistically different(t=2.445, 3.808, all P<0.05). The incidence rate of adverse reaction of the research group was lower than that of the control group(15.63% vs.37.50%), the difference was statistically significant (χ2=3.925, P<0.05). Conclusion Gabapentin has similar treatment effects in recurrent trigeminal neuralgia as carbamazepin, and gabapentin has better improvement in patients' life quality, and with better safety. Key words: Trigeminal neuralgia; Gabapentin; Carbamazepine