[Experiences with the Janetta operation in patients with trigeminal neuralgia]

From a small group of 20 patients treated by us those 13 patients were selected for whom the permanent therapy results could be assessed with a certain reliability. This procedure made the value of a precise establishment of the case history with respect to the possibility of a trigeminal root alteration evident. Only in one operation there was no relation between trigeminal root and vessels, but there was a concomitant arachnoiditis. In 12 cases the immediate effect of the operation was excellent to good, and although the permanent effect reduced these figures after one year, it was still higher than that obtained by other methods. The absence of an additional damage of the nerve and/or the surrounding brain should be pointed out. Thus the Janetta method became the operation technique of first choice provided there are the general physical pre-requisites to an exposure of the cerebellopontile angle.