Efficacy of microvascular decompression for treating trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm

Ninety nine patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN, n=59) or hemifacial spasm (HFS, n=40) underwent microvascular decompression (MVD ) treatment in our hospital from January 2012 to December 2015, and were followed up for more than 1 year. Total 94 patients (94.9%) were cured after the surgery, including 55 TN cases (93.2%) and 39 HFS cases (97.5%). The 1-year follow up showed that total 98 patients (99.0%) were cured, including 58 TN cases (98.3%) and 40 HFS cases (100.0%). Among the HFS cases, 1 patient got gentle spasm, 1 patient got hearing deficit, 1 patient got light facial palsy after the operation, and all recovered completely during the follow-up. Among the TN cases, 4 patients got pain attack infrequently after the operation, 3 of them recovered during the follow-up, and the symptoms were satisfactorily controlled by taking carbamazepine in rest 1 case. No cases had cerebrospinal fluid leakage or intracerebral infection. The results indicate that MVD is an effective treatment of HFS and TN with less surgical injury or complications. Key words: Trigeminal neuralgia; Microsurgery; Vascular surgical procedures