Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Med Hypotheses. 2010 Jul;75(1):65-6. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2010.01.028. Epub 2010 Feb 20.
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is characterized by sudden, recurrent, usually unilateral, severe brief stabbing pains in the distribution of trigeminal nerve. Although it is widely accepted that blood vessel or tumor compression contributes to paroxysms of TN, the pathogenesis of persistent background pain in atypical TN patient is unclear. Central sensitization is pain hypersensitivity caused by central neural plasticity. It is responsible for many temporal and symptomatic features of acute and chronic pain. We hypothesize that central sensitization might account for some symptoms of atypical TN. Based on this hypothesis, we postulate that early medical intervention predicts good outcomes in TN and medicines which are effective on central sensitization may be potential agents for the treatment of atypical TN.
三叉神经痛（TN）的特征是突发、反复、通常单侧、剧烈短暂的刺痛，分布于三叉神经。尽管普遍认为血管或肿瘤压迫导致 TN 发作，但不典型 TN 患者持续性背景疼痛的发病机制尚不清楚。中枢敏化是由中枢神经可塑性引起的疼痛过敏。它是引起急性和慢性疼痛许多时相和症状特征的原因。我们假设中枢敏化可能是不典型 TN 的部分症状的原因。基于这一假设，我们推测早期医学干预可预测 TN 的良好转归，并且对中枢敏化有效的药物可能是治疗不典型 TN 的潜在药物。
