Definition
- Severe, paroxysmal bursts of pain in 1 or more branches of the trigeminal nerve
- The trigeminal (fifth cranial) nerve supplies sensation to the skin of the face and anterior half of the head.
- Sometimes known as tic douloureux
Epidemiology
- Incidence
- Estimated 4.5 per 100,000
- Age
- Primarily middle-aged and elderly
- Sex
Risk Factors
Etiology
- Symptoms result from ectopic generation of action potentials in pain-sensitive afferent fibers of the fifth cranial nerve root just before it enters the lateral surface of the pons (see Figure 1).
- Compression of the trigeminal nerve root by a blood vessel (most often the superior cerebellar artery) may be the source of neuralgia.
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