Trigeminal Nerve Compression Without Trigeminal Neuralgia: Intraoperative vs Imaging Evidence.

Background: While high-resolution imaging is increasingly used in guiding decisions about surgical interventions for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia, direct assessment of the extent of vascular contact of the trigeminal nerve is still considered the gold standard for the determination of whether nerve decompression is warranted.

Objective: To compare intraoperative and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of the prevalence and severity of vascular compression of the trigeminal nerve in patients without classical trigeminal neuralgia.

Methods: We prospectively recruited 27 patients without facial pain who were undergoing microvascular decompression for hemifacial spasm and had undergone high-resolution preoperative MRI.