Acupuncture treatment for trigeminal neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia is a neuropathic pain syndrome, characterised by severe stabbing or piercing pain in the face that comes on suddenly. The pain is almost on one side of the face and may last from a few seconds to several minutes and repeats up to hundreds of times throughout the day. The episodes of pain can be trigged by chewing, smiling, talking and shaving etc. Living with trigeminal neuralgia can be difficult and it can interfere with quality of life. In the UK, trigeminal neuralgia affects 4 to 5 people out of every 100,000 population each year. It occurs more frequently over the age of 50 and almost twice as many women as men. It has been described as one of the most painful conditions known to humankind. There is currently no cure. Although the exact causes are not always clear, trigeminal neuralgia is believed to be induced by compression of the trigeminal nerve or other relevant conditions. Medication normally provides temporary symptom relief. Surgical approaches have been performed for the relief of pain. However, invasive treatments have many adverse effects such as hearing loss or facial numbness.

Acupuncture has been reported to successfully treat a patient with resistant trigeminal neuralgia. A 66-year-old woman, with facial pain on the left side of her face for 25 years, was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia by a neurologist. The pain was evaluated using a visual analog scale (1-10). The patient rated her pain as 10 and experienced no beneficial effects from several approaches including medication, nerve block etc. The patient was given acupuncture treatment 3 times a week. She felt almost pain free after fourth session. By the end of 14 session treatments the patient was completely pain free (visual analog scale=0) and was still pain free at the end of sixth month. This study suggests that patients with resistant trigeminal neuralgia should seek after acupuncture treatment.

Reference:

H Sert et al., (2009) Clinics, 64:1225-6.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=sert+h%2C+trigeminal