Increased risk of trigeminal neuralgia after hypertension: a population-based study.

OBJECTIVE

Very few studies have explored the temporal relationship between hypertension and trigeminal neuralgia (TN). The aim of this population-based follow-up study was to investigate whether hypertension is associated with a higher risk of developing TN.

METHODS

A total of 138,492 persons with at least 2 ambulatory visits with the principal diagnosis of hypertension in 2001 were enrolled in the hypertension group. The nonhypertension group consisted of 276,984 age- and sex-matched, randomly sampled subjects without hypertension. The 3-year TN-free survival rate and the cumulative incidence of TN were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate the hazard ratio of TN.

RESULTS

In the hypertension group, 121 patients developed TN during follow-up, while, in the nonhypertension group, 167 subjects developed TN. The crude hazard ratio for the hypertension group was 1.52 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20-1.92; p = 0.0005), while, after adjustment for demographic characteristics and medical comorbidities, the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.51 (95% CI 1.19-1.90; p = 0.0006).

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows a significantly increased risk of developing TN after hypertension. Further studies are needed to elucidate the underlying mechanism of the association between hypertension and TN.