Keisuke Onoda*, Tomoyuki Naito, Junpei Kato, Tomihiro Wakamiya, Yuhei Michiwaki, Kimihiro Nakahara, Tatsuya Tanaka, Takashi Agari, Takashi Sugawara, Kazuaki Shimoji, Eiichi Suehiro, Hiroshi Itokawa and Akira Matsuno

Department of Neurosurgery, International University of Health and Welfare, School of Medicine, Narita Hospital, Narita, Chiba, Japan

*Corresponding Author: Keisuke Onoda, Department of Neurosurgery, International University of Health and Welfare, School of Medicine, Narita Hospital, Narita, Chiba, Japan.

Received: April 23, 2024; Published: May 22, 2024

Abstract

Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) can trigger symptoms in activities of daily living (ADLs) that significantly limit and impair quality of life. Because eating is a trigger, eating disturbances due to TN can have a life-threatening impact on prognosis. In this study, we report a case of microvascular decompression (MVD) in patients with TN aged > 80 years.

Materials and Methods: Eighteen patients aged > 80 years (80-90 years; 14 males and 4 females) underwent MVD for TN over the past two years. Surgery was performed using the retrosigmoid approach with continuous monitoring of the auditory brainstem response. To avoid stretching the eighth cranial nerve, which causes hearing loss, the spinal fluid was not drained too extensively, and decompression was applied after reaching the nerve. Intraoperative determination of the decompression method was performed using either transposition or interposition, with particular attention paid to the vessels responsible for arteriosclerosis.

Results: Surgical results were favorable (94.4%), and no complications occurred. The average length of hospital stay was 10.6 days for the very elderly patients.

Conclusions: Because of the excellent results obtained, we suggest that surgical treatment of very elderly patients should be aggressively considered after a thorough evaluation of the patient's general condition.

 Keywords: Microvascular Decompression; Trigeminal Neuralgia; Very Elderly

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Citation

Citation: Keisuke Onoda., et al. “Microvascular Decompression for Trigeminal Neuralgia in Very Elderly Patients”. Acta Scientific Neurology 7.6 (2024): 21-24.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2024 Keisuke Onoda., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.