Issue release date: 12.11.2024
2117 Hospital of People’s Liberation Army, Center of Gamma Knife, Hangzhou, China
3Xinxiang Institute for New Medicine, Xinxianag, China
4Jiangsu Su Bei People’s Hospital, Yangzhou, China DOI : 10.5137/1019-5149.JTN.6709-12.1 AIM: To understand the mechanism of the gamma knife treating the trigeminal neuralgia.
MATERIAL and METHODS: Using the MASEP-SRRS type gamma knife treatment system, 140 Chinese patients with trigeminal neuralgia (NT) were treated in our hospital from 2002 to 2010, in which the pain relief rate reached 95% and recurrence rate was 3% only. We investigated the effect of the gamma knife treatment on the trigeminal nerve root in 20 Chinese patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia by the magnetic resonance imager (MRI) observation.
RESULTS: 1) The cross-sectional area of trigeminal nerve root became smaller and MRI signals were lower in the treatment side than those in the non-treatment side after the gamma knife treatment of primary trigeminal neuralgia; 2) in the treatment side, the cross-sectional area of the trigeminal nerve root decreased significantly after the gamma knife treatment; 3) there was good correlation between the clinical improvement and the MRI findings; and 4) the straight distance between the trigeminal nerve root and the brainstem did not change after the gamma knife treatment.
CONCLUSION: The pain relief induced the gamma knife radiosurgery might be related with the atrophy of the trigeminal nerve root in Chinese patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia.
Keywords : Gamma knife, Trigeminal nerve root, Primary trigeminal neuralgia, MRI