[Clinical analysis of trigeminal neuropathy as initial manifestations--an etiological study]

The differential diagnosis of trigeminal neuropathy is quite challenging because there is a significant variety of causes for the disorder. We reviewed our cases of trigeminal neuropathy by studying first the initial manifestations in order to evaluate their underlying disorders. Sixty-four patients with trigeminal neuropathy came to our Out-Patients clinic. We have excluded from our analysis any patients with atypical pain, facial migraine, nasal sinusitis, pain from inflammation of dental pulp or facial bones, and pretrigeminal neuralgia. In 53 cases (83%) we identified the causes; 35 of them were cases of symptomatic trigeminal neuritis and 18 were trigeminal neuralgia while, in the remaining 11 cases, no definitive causative disorder was identified. Among the 35 patients with symptomatic neuritis, 10 cases were found to have malignant neoplasms including 5 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 6 had a virus infection, 5 had traumatic origin, 4 had multiple sclerosis, 2 exhibited Tolosa-Hunt syndrome, 2 had MCTD, and there were single cases of sarcoidosis, serpentine aneurysm, cavernous sinus thrombosis, maxillary cyst and trigeminal neurinoma. The remaining 11 cases of neuritis whose causes were undetermined showed clinical features similar to trigeminal sensory neuropathy, an analogue of Bell's palsy, a benign self-limiting condition. Since the cases shared symptoms of impairment of taste, and, occasionally, of facial palsy, vestibular insufficiency, hearing disturbance, hypoglossal palsy or signs of cerebellar lesion, we strongly suspected a virus origin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)