The trigeminal neuralgia It is a type of headache that increasingly affects more patients.
It is a disorder that, according to data from the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), affects more than 30,000 people in Spain and about 2,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
And it is that, although it is not the most common type, specialists are detecting an increase in both incidence and prevalence in recent years. The reason? The progressive aging of the population.
What is a neuralgia and where is the trigeminal?
As he explains Dr. Pablo IrimiaCoordinator of the Headache Study Group of the:
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“When specialists talk about neuralgia, they refer to all pain that occurs in the area through which a nerve runs.”
And in the case of this pathology, the affected nerve is the trigeminal. What is it, where is it?
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«It is the largest of the cranial nerves, so called because it has three divisions: the ophthalmological, maxillary and mandibular branches. It is, therefore, the main sensory nerve of the face. continues the doctor.
Regarding this ailment, trigeminal neuralgia is a type of headache very acute and intense, which affects the area through which this nerve runs.
It is somewhat more frequent in women than in men, and its incidence increases with age in both sexes, especially after the sixth decade of life.
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In fact, trigeminal neuralgia constitutes almost 90% of neuralgia that occurs in people over 60 years of age.
Shaving, chewing or blowing can trigger a seizure
About what this ailment consists of and how it manifests itself, the doctor explains it to us Pablo Irimia:
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“Trigeminal neuralgia is chronic pain, stabbing or electric in nature, which begins and ends abruptly. Although the episodes of pain appear in the form of crises lasting less than two minutes, they can be repeated several times a day and have great intensity.
Another of the peculiarities of this pathology is that usually the pain is located in one or two of the three trigeminal branches. And the least affected, in less than 5% of cases, is the ophthalmic branch.
It is also unusual for neuralgia to affect both sides of the face, although this may be the case in some patients.
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«Pain crises are usually precipitated by stimulating in some way the area through which the trigeminal nerve passes, so carrying out activities as common as talking, chewing, washing the face, shaving or blowing their nose can cause the onset of crises. crisis. Although these episodes can also start spontaneously ”, details the neurologist.
What causes trigeminal neuralgia?
Approximately 90% of cases, called idiopathicare produced by compression or distortion, by an artery or a vein, of the trigeminal root.
The remaining 10% of cases are considered symptomatic, and they usually involve a brain tumor (less than 2% of cases), or fractures, or facial surgeries.
Behind this pathology there may also be some type of infection (such as herpes zoster) or degenerative diseases (such as multiple sclerosis).
In symptomatic cases, the age of onset of symptoms is usually earlier and it is common for pain to present together with various sensory abnormalities.
Solutions to avoid pain
“Fortunately, and due to the existence of numerous therapeutic options, suffering from trigeminal neuralgia does not necessarily mean having to suffer from pain. There are several oral drugs that have shown their effectiveness in many of the patients”, says Dr. Irimia.
“And for those cases in which drug treatment fails, there are surgical options based on interrupting nerve impulses at some point along the trigeminal pathway, or surgically separating the artery or vein that contacts the trigeminal nerve.”
“In any case, to access these treatments it is essential to correctly identify and diagnose patients, something that does not always happen because -due to the age of the people affected- it is common for relatives or caregivers to minimize the symptoms or attribute them to another type of of previous ailments”, highlights the specialist in neurology.