Percutaneous injection of glycerol for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.

There continues a significant debate over the best contemporary method for treating trigeminal neuralgia. Glycerol injection into the trigeminal cistern has been used in a consecutive series of 200 patients. A total of 80% of the patients have had good or excellent pain relief. Side effects have been a mild and usually transient numbness and tingling or mild objective sensory deficit to pin and touch in approximately 1/2 of the patients. Complications have been extremely infrequent and have resolved in time. A recurrence rate of 24% has been the single largest disadvantage of the procedure. Reinjection is usually successful in treatment of recurrence. The combination of efficacy, minimal and temporary neurologic dysfunction, and low complication rate make this procedure, in our opinion, the procedure of choice for the first step, when surgical treatment is required.