A technique to facilitate the cannulation of the foramen ovale for balloon compression.

Background: Percutaneous balloon compression is a safe and effective treatment for trigeminal neuralgia. Current technique consists of penetrating the foramen ovale using a sharp 14G needle with a stylet. Difficulty of cannulation of the foramen ovale, failures of cannulation and major neurovascular complications of the procedure, although rare, may be due to the relatively large caliber of this needle and its sharp tip.

Objective: To present a novel technique to facilitate and make the cannulation of the foramen ovale with a 14G cannula safer.

Methods: A rigid blunt-tip guide of 1.2 or 1.5 mm is used to penetrate the foramen ovale under lateral fluoroscopic control. Once the guide enters the foramen it is advanced further to the clival line, and a 14G cannula is then advanced over the guide to engage the foramen, at which point the guide is withdrawn and replaced with the balloon catheter.

Results: The technique was employed to deliver a 4F balloon catheter to Meckel's cave successfully in 500 consecutive procedures performed on 416 trigeminal neuralgia patients. None of the patients had neurovascular complications like facial hematoma, arterial injury, carotid-cavernous fistula or cranial nerve palsies.

Conclusion: A novel technique for cannulation of the foramen ovale is described. The use of blunt tip guides of smaller diameters instead of sharp 14 G needles considerably facilitated cannulation of the foramen ovale and enabled cannulation in all cases. Absence of complications of cannulation such as facial hematoma, carotid-cavernous fistula or intracranial hemorrhage in this series of patients suggests that the technique may be safer than the use of conventional sharp tipped 14G needles in terms of avoiding neurovascular complications.