Anesthetic management of percutaneous balloon compression of the trigeminal ganglion for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia - Two cases report

Trigeminal neuralgia is sudden, usually unilateral, severe brief stabbing recurrent pain in the distribution of one or more branches of the 5th cranial nerve. Treatments of trigeminal neuralgia include systemic trials of medications and surgical procedures such as microvascular decompression, stereotactic radiosurgery, percutaneous glycerol or alcohol rhizolysis, percutaneous radiofrequency rhizotomy, and percutaneous balloon compression (PBC). PBC of the trigeminal ganglion using a balloon catheter was introduced by Mullan and Lichtor in 1983. Since then, many papers have been published describing results of this technique. Typically, this procedure is performed under general anesthesia. However, little is known about the use of PBC for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia in Korea. We report here our anesthetic management of percutaneous balloon compression of trigeminal ganglion for the treatment of the trigeminal neuralgia by total intravenous anesthesia.