Diagnostic criteria and management of trigeminal neuralgia: A review

Abstract

Trigeminal neuralgia, often called tic douloreux, has been described as one of the worst painful human afflictions. It is a craniofacial pain disorder that is characterized by episodes of sharp, severe, lancinating, “electric - like” bolts of pain. Pain of trigeminal neuralgia has been compared to severe toothache or even labor pain. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines classical idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (TN) as “a sudden, usually unilateral, severe, brief, stabbing, recurrent pain in the distribution of one or more branches of the fifth cranial nerve.” However, there are variations in presentation that are more difficult to diagnose trigeminal neuralgia. The purpose of this article is to review the recent developments, new criteria for diagnosis, medical and surgical management. The review article has been prepared doing a literature review from the World Wide Web and pubmed/medline.