Surgical intervention for trigeminal neuralgia34
| Intervention | Microvascular decompression | Stereotactic radiosurgery | Radiofrequency thermocoagulation | Balloon compression | Glycerol rhizolysis | Internal neurolysis |
| Efficacy data | ||||||
| Number of studies | 21 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Total number of patients | 5149 | 1168 | 4533 | 755 | 289 | 26 |
| Mean/median follow-up | 3–10.9 years | 3.1–5.6 years | 3–9.3 years | 4.2–10.7 years | 4.5–8 years | 3.6 years |
| Pain free at follow-up (5) | 62%–89% | 30%–66% | 26%–82% | 55%–80% | 19%–58% | 72% |
| Complications (%) | ||||||
| Facial sensory changes | 3 | 16 | 19 | 15 | 40 | 96 |
| Corneal hypoaesthesia | 0.3 | 0 | 6.6 | 0.7 | 6.6 | 0 |
| Hearing loss | 1.8 | 0 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 |
| Motor weakness | 0 | 0 | 6.2 | 4.5 | 1.7 | 0 |
| Cranial nerve palsy | 4.1 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 0 | 0 |
| Meningitis | 0.4 | 0 | 0.02 | 5.7 | 0 | 0 |
| CSF leak | 2 | 0 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 3.8 |
| Anaesthesia dolorosa | 0.02 | 0 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 3.9 |
| Mortality | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
CSF, cerebrospinal fluid.