A tentorial sling in microvascular decompression for trigeminal neuralgia. Technical note.

The key to the successful microvascular decompression of the trigeminal nerve is the maintenance of the separation between the trigeminal nerve and the offending vessel. The authors describe a technique whereby a dural sling is fashioned from the tentorium cerebelli (the anatomy of which is briefly reviewed), which is used to suspend the vessel away from the nerve and is secured by a single hemoclip.