The Risk Factors for Facial Numbness After Microvascular Decompression in Patients With Trigeminal Neuralgia

Microvascular decompression (MVD) is the most popular surgical procedure for treating Trigeminal neuralgia (TN). In this article, the authors conducted a large case series in which patients underwent MVD for TN, and focus on surgical outcomes, intraoperative findings, complications and risk factors.

From January 2017 to June 2017, a total of 84 patients with TN were treated with MVD in our department. The authors retrospectively analyzed the surgical outcomes and postoperative complications of these patients. Risk factors were analyzed by binary logistic regression analysis.

Of the 84 patients, 69 had complete postoperative symptom relief (BNI I-II). A total of 28 patients developed postoperative facial numbness (BNI III-IV) and 1 patient died intraoperatively. With binary logistic regression analysis, significant risk factors for postoperative Facial numbness (FN) were longer operation time (odds ratio [OR] 1.153, P <0.05) and longer hospital stay (OR 1.371, P <0.05). The patients' age, the length of the disease, the gender, and the side of the disease did not affect the occurrence of postoperative FN.

The study found that patients with TN treated with MVD had a good response rate after surgery. The incidence of FN after surgery is not low, and longer duration of surgery and longer hospital stay are risk factors for FN. In the case of ensuring the success rate of surgery, reducing unnecessary operations, reducing the operation time, will help to reduce the occurrence of FN.