Evaluation of the effectiveness duration of peripheral blocks applied with high concentration local anesthetic and steroid in trigeminal neuralgia

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness duration of the peripheral blocks applied with high concentration local anesthetic and steroid in trigeminal neuralgia.Methods: The data of 48 patients (nine patients received medical treatment and 39 patients underwent interventional pro-cedure for peripheral block and Gasser ganglion radiofrequency thermocoagulation [RFT]) were analyzed retrospectively. The medications used by patients, pre-operative and post-operative visual analog scale scores who underwent interventional procedures, and duration for effectiveness of the procedure were evaluated with 36 months follow-up.Results: Forty-eight patients (32 females and 16 males) who were treated with primary and secondary etiologies were evalu-ated. Three patients V1, 12 patients V2, 25 patients V3, and eight patients V2+V3 trigeminal nerve branches described ap-propriate clinical symptoms. Only peripheral block was applied to 31 patients and Gasser ganglion RFT was applied to eight patients after peripheral block. In 24 patients who underwent peripheral block, pain severity reduction was z50%, mean ef-fectiveness duration of peripheral block was 7.5 months. The eight patients undergoing Gasser ganglion RFT had z50% pain intensity reduction, mean effectiveness duration of Gasser ganglion RFT was 22.7 months (p=0.002). While one patient had hypoesthesia in the palate after RFT, no serious side effects were recorded.Conclusion:The duration of pain control for peripheral branch blocks in trigeminal neuralgia is not as long as RFT, but it is a relatively less invasive and less complicated interventional technique with good efficacy duration due to neurotoxicity of the used high concentrated local anesthetic.