Percutaneous retrogasserian glycerol rhizolysis. Observations and results about 50 cases

Fifty patients complaining of trigeminal neuralgia have been treated by Percutaneous Retrogasserian Glycerol Rhizotomy (PRGR) from September 1983 to December 1985. In 94% of cases the procedure was successful in relieving pain with minor facial sensory loss, in 29 cases confined to the affected divisions, in 13 cases extending in an adjacent division. A herpes eruption occurred in 39 patients. A partial relapse (not requiring re-operation) verified in 12 patients. Even it firm conclusions cannot be reached as to the efficacy of this therapy, till when longer duration follow-up studies will not available, it seems to offer a manageable and very efficient way of treating trigeminal pain, constituting a valid alternative to other percutaneous techniques of trigeminal rhizolysis.