Treatments and Locations

Treatments and Locations

• Microvascular decompression (MVD) is a surgical procedure to relieve pain and muscle twitching that is caused by neurovascular compression. MVD involves opening the skull and inserting a small sponge between the nerve and the compressing blood vessel. The sponge serves to isolate the nerve from the pulsating pressure.
• Percutaneous rhizotomy is a minimally invasive treatment for trigeminal nerve. While the patient is under anesthesia, a needle is introduced through the cheek into the trigeminal nerve “ganglion”, which is the nerve’s junction box before it exits the skull. Through this needle, the neurosurgeon can temporarily insert a balloon to briefly compress the nerve or a radiofrequency probe to heat a small segment of the nerve, disrupting the pathway that causes pain.
• Stereotactic radiosurgery, sometimes referred to as Gamma Knife surgery, involves using multiple beams of highly focused radiation. Stereotactic radiosurgery is an advanced non-invasive treatment that can used be to treat trigeminal neuralgia in specific patients.