Impact of preoperative medical management on postoperative outcomes after index percutaneous rhizotomy for trigeminal neuralgia.

Objective: Initial medical management fails in nearly half of patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN), and patients will seek surgical management with either rhizotomy or microvascular decompression. The impact of preoperative medical management on post-rhizotomy outcomes is unclear. The authors aimed to further evaluate this relationship.

Methods: In this single-center, retrospective cohort study, the authors recorded clinical and demographic data for patients with TN who underwent first-time rhizotomy at their institution (1995-2023). Univariate logistic regression and Cox regression analyses were used to evaluate associations between the number and duration of preoperative pain medications with postoperative outcomes, including pain improvement, medication-free remission, and time to pain recurrence.

Results: A total of 413 patients met inclusion criteria (mean age 62.6 ± 15.7 years, 63.0% female). The mean time on preoperative pain medications for TN was 57.0 ± 73.1 months. At the time of presentation, 85.5% of patients were taking ≥ 1 pain medication for TN, with anticonvulsants being the most commonly prescribed (78.7%). Postoperatively, 75.3% experienced pain improvement and 14.3% achieved remission. The median time to recurrence was 8.6 (95% CI 6.2-11.0) months among the entire cohort, 12.8 (95% CI 8.8-16.7) months for patients who had postoperative improvement in TN pain, and 36.0 (95% CI 12.7-59.3) months for patients who achieved pain remission not requiring medication. There were no significant associations between time on preoperative pain medications, number of pain medications tried, number of pain medications at presentation to neurosurgery, and postoperative outcomes.

Conclusions: While early neurosurgical referral is valuable for discussing treatment options, the authors' findings suggest that prolonged medication use does not diminish the effectiveness of rhizotomy in relieving TN symptoms.