Posted by Paco (204.111.49.18) on June 03, 2000 at 16:27:43:
In Reply to: END OF THE ROPE - LAST TRAIN posted by Luanne on June 03, 2000 at 16:00:30:
Here is info from the medical link on this site:
Invasive Procedures
For patients who are completely refractory to all known medical therapy and continue to
experience repeated attacks of pain chronically, a number of aggressive procedures have
been implemented. These include percutaneous glycerol injections into the trigeminal
cistern, trigeminal sensory rhizotomy, percutaneous radiofrequency trigeminal rhizotomy,
superficial petrosal neurectomy, trigeminal branch avulsion, and decompression of the
nervus intermedius (Ekbom et al, 1987; Watson et al, 1983; Onofrio and Campbell,
1986; Solomon and Apfelbaum 1986). The overall benefit from these procedures is about
50 percent, with no one procedure holding superiority. Since repeated injections of local
anesthetic of the gasserian ganglion may provide long-lasting but temporary relief, I have
used steroid injections of the maxillary division of the trigeminal nerve in four patients with
infraorbital pain. Pain relief occurred in all four, lasting 10 to 34 days (Raskin, unpublished
observations).
Also, check my previous posts to Suze about Rhizotomy.