Object Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is characterized by paroxysmal lancinating pain in the trigeminal nerve distribution. When TN is refractory to medical management, patients are referred for microvascular decompression (MVD), radiofrequency ablation, or radiosurgery. After the initial treatment, patients may have refractory or recurrent symptoms requiring retreatment. The purpose of this study was to determine what factors are associated with the need for retreatment and which modality is most effective. Methods To define this population further, the authors evaluated a cohort of patients who required retreatment for TN. The mean follow-up periods were 51 months from the first treatment and 23 months from the last one, and these were comparable among treatment groups. Conclusions Trigeminal neuralgia can recur after neurosurgical treatment. In this study the authors demonstrate that the number of patients requiring retreatment is not negligible. Lower retreatment rates were seen in patients who initially underwent radiosurgery, compared with those in whom MVD or radiofrequency ablation were performed. Radiosurgery was more likely to be the final treatment for recurrent TN regardless of the initial treatment. After retreatment, the majority of patients attained complete or very good pain relief. Pain relief after retreatment correlates with postoperative facial numbness.

Object Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a painful disorder that frequently causes lancinating, electrical shock–like pain in the trigeminal distribution. Common surgical treatments include microvascular decompression (MVD), radio-surgery, and radiofrequency ablation, and complete pain relief is generally achieved with a single treatment in 70 to 85% of cases for all modalities. In a subset of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), however, the rates of surgical treatment failure and the need for additional procedures are significantly increased compared with those in patients without MS. In this study the authors report their experience with a cohort of 11 patients with TN who also had MS, and assess the efficacy of MVD, gamma knife surgery (GKS), and radiofrequency ablation in achieving complete or partial long-term pain relief. Methods Eleven patients with TN and MS who were treated by the senior author (N.B.) at the University of California, San Francisco were included in this study. All patients underwent GKS and/or radiofrequency ablation, and four received MVD. A detailed clinical history and intraoperative findings were recorded for each patient and frequent follow-up evaluations were performed, with a mean follow-up duration of 40.6 months (range 1–96 months). Pain was assessed for each patient by using the Barrow Neurological Institute scale (Scores I–V). Conclusions Achieving complete pain relief in patients with TN and MS required significantly more treatments compared with all other patients with TN who did not have MS (p = 0.004). Even when compared with a group of 32 patients who had highly refractory TN, the cohort with MS required significantly more treatments (p = 0.05). Radiosurgery proved to be an effective procedure and resulted in fewer retreatments and longer pain-free intervals compared with MVD or radiofrequency ablation.

Intracranial dermoid cysts are rare congenital lesions that result from abnormal sequestration of ectodermal cells during neural tube formation. Dermoid cysts are typically hypodense on computed tomography, but when hyperdense may mimic a hemorrhage. The authors report the case of a 16-year-old boy who presented with a history of chronic progressive headaches. Findings on a CT scan were indicative of hemorrhage. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed the lesion to be a dermoid cyst with unusual characteristics. Upon gross resection, the lesion appeared to be a dermoid cyst without hemorrhage, but histological evaluation revealed evidence of hemorrhage. The authors describe their experience and review the literature, emphasizing that a dermoid cyst may have unusual radiographic characteristics indicative of hemorrhage and may contain areas of hemorrhage on histological examination.