SUBTOTAL RESECTION OF SENSORY ROOT FOR RELIEF OF MAJOR TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA

Abstract

Despite the fact that trigeminal neuralgia has been discussed and investigated for a century and more, there is still much about the syndrome that we do not understand, much in the physiology of the trigeminal tract that is not entirely clear, much in the nature of other painful phenomena of the face that is still a mystery. Why, after operation, does the zone of anesthesia gradually recede from the inferior and posterior margins of the trigeminal distribution? What is the precise differentiation of sensation as allotted to the facial, sympathetic and trigeminal nerve tracts? What part, if any, does the sympathetic nerve play in pain phenomena of the face? What is the nature and cause of some of the postoperative paresthesias? Why does trophic keratitis follow some operations and not others? These are a few of the questions that are still unanswered. That the sympathetic nerve plays a rôle in