[Treatment of trigeminal neuralgia with glycerin injected into Meckel's cavity]

The authors of the present study report on their results with glycerol gained over the past 9 years in 142 cases of trigeminal neuralgia. Initial pain relief was achieved in 64.5% of the cases. The average pain-free interval was 18.6 +/- 5.4 months, in other terms, 50% of the patients remained pain-free at 15 months after the procedure. However, a half-life of 23 months could be observed in a subgroup of patients with typical neuralgia if glycerol injection was the only way of operation during the course of the disease. Facial sensory loss which persisted for more than one year was found in 9.6% of the patients, corneal hypaesthesia occurred in 5.7%. Despite the relatively frequent recurrences, the technical simplicity and the low rate of complications may render this method to be useful in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.