Outcome of medical and surgical management in intractable idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia.

Background: The neurovascular conflict in trigeminal neuralgia is an intractable condition; medical treatment is usually of long duration and can be annoying for both patients and clinicians.

Aim: This prospective study was designed to assess the outcome of microvascular decompression (MVD) in patients with more than 3 years' history of intractable idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and poor response to drugs.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-one patients (8 females and 13 males) with intractable idiopathic TN (group 1) underwent MVD and were followed up for 2 years.