Kotlyar Arkady
Outpatient Pain Clinic, Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel.
Med Acupunct. 2017 Dec 1;29(6):405-410. doi: 10.1089/acu.2017.1251.
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is the most common cranial neuralgia in adults, with a slightly higher incidence in women than in men. This chronic pain condition affects the trigeminal nerve, also known as the 5th cranial nerve. It is one of the most deeply distributed nerves in the head. Antiseizure drugs are the main biomedical treatment of TN. However, TN is not the only source of facial pain. Background persistent idiopathic facial pain (PIFP) is also a chronic disorder, recurring daily for more than 2 hours per day over more than 3 months. PIFP occurs in the absence of a neurologic deficit. The underlying pathophysiologies of TN and PIFP are still unknown, and treatment options have not been sufficiently evaluated. Nevertheless, neuropathic mechanisms could be relevant in both TN and PIFP. A 65-year-old Caucasian female with left facial pain was diagnosed by a neurologist with TN ∼2.5 years prior to seeking acupuncture treatment. A 42-year-old Caucasian female with left and right facial pain was diagnosed by a neurologist with PIFP ∼3 years prior to commencing acupuncture treatment. The cause of facial pain was treated with 60-minute sessions of I Ching Balance Acupuncture (ICBA) twice per week. Prior to each session, the effect of the previous session was recorded carefully in the patients' files. A complete dissipation of pain was achieved after 29 and 60 ICBA sessions in the TN and the PIFP patient, respectively. The present article is the one of the first to demonstrate the efficacy of ICBA treatment for refractory facial pain. As the present article shows, ICBA treatment affects facial pain of different types successfully. However, additional larger-scale studies are necessary to validate the efficacy of ICBA in TN and PIFP treatment.
三叉神经痛（TN）是成年人中最常见的颅神经痛，女性发病率略高于男性。这种慢性疼痛病症会影响三叉神经，也称为第5对颅神经。它是头部分布最深的神经之一。抗癫痫药物是TN的主要生物医学治疗方法。然而，TN并非面部疼痛的唯一来源。背景持续性特发性面部疼痛（PIFP）也是一种慢性疾病，每天发作超过2小时，持续超过3个月。PIFP在没有神经功能缺损的情况下发生。TN和PIFP的潜在病理生理学仍然未知，治疗方案也尚未得到充分评估。尽管如此，神经病变机制可能与TN和PIFP都相关。一名65岁的白人女性因左侧面部疼痛，在寻求针灸治疗前约2.5年被神经科医生诊断为TN。一名42岁的白人女性因左右面部疼痛，在开始针灸治疗前约3年被神经科医生诊断为PIFP。通过每周两次、每次60分钟的《易经》平衡针灸（ICBA）治疗面部疼痛的病因。每次治疗前，将上一次治疗的效果仔细记录在患者档案中。TN患者和PIFP患者分别在接受29次和60次ICBA治疗后疼痛完全消失。本文是首批证明ICBA治疗难治性面部疼痛有效性的文章之一。如本文所示，ICBA治疗成功地影响了不同类型的面部疼痛。然而，需要更多大规模研究来验证ICBA在TN和PIFP治疗中的疗效。
