ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Chirurgia 2015 December;28(6):213-6

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Tenotomy of the deep portion of the temporalis muscle on trigeminal neuralgia refractory to drugs

Fuentes E., Cortés M. F., Solari P., Gomez R., Melián A., Suazo G.

Universidad Finis Terrae, Santiago, Chile

AIM: The aim of this paper was to report the clinical course of 28 consecutive patients treated with tenotomy of deep belly of temporalis muscle.
METHODS: Retrospective case series of the first 28 patients treated with tenotomy of deep belly of temporalis muscle between January and July 2007 at an academic secondary care center.
RESULTS: The average age was 58.6 years (range: 32-77). Three patients were previously operated with others sugical techniques. The median baseline visual analogue scale (VAS) was 10 (range: 0 to 10). The median 1-year postsurgical VAS was 2. Fourteen of the patients had complete resolution of their pain. There were no cases of deterioration of patients or the function or the perception of pain. Annual follow-up was performed for six years.
CONCLUSION: Tenotomy of deep belly of temporalis muscle was applied as a new surgical procedure for Trigeminal Neuralgia, we present a series of 28 patients who suffered Trigeminal Neuralgia with and without previous surgical treatments. This patients did not respond at pharmacologic therapy. Other aethiologic factor of trigeminal neuralgia was discarted. There was an associated reduction in pain measured in VAS after tenotomy at 1 year of follow-up. This results may suggest a novel relationship between deep belly of temporalis muscle and trigeminal neuralgia.