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Trigeminal Neuralgia in Pregnancy: A Management Challenge
Author(s) -
Swain Bhanu P.,
Vidhya Sri,
Jadon Ashok,
Chandra Kumar N.,
Kumar Sharad
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
pain practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1533-2500
pISSN - 1530-7085
DOI - 10.1111/papr.12605
Subject(s) - medicine , trigeminal neuralgia , pregnancy , pulsed radiofrequency , fetus , fluoroscopy , radiofrequency ablation , trigeminal nerve , ganglion , obstetrics , anesthesia , ablation , surgery , pain relief , genetics , anatomy , biology
Pregnancy is known to aggravate pre‐existing chronic painful conditions. Trigeminal neuralgia ( TN ), albeit a disease of the elderly, may afflict pregnant females, which can further complicate its management. Teratogenic effects of the commonly used drugs on the developing fetus limit pharmacological treatment. Moreover, safety of commonly performed interventional therapies is marred by their inherent fetomaternal effects and more importantly the risk for radiation effects on the fetus due to the use of fluoroscopy. This rare coexistence of TN in pregnancy has not been reported before. Here we present a case of TN in a young woman, whose pain was aggravated when she became pregnant, and she was treated successfully by conventional radiofrequency ablation of the Gasserian ganglion.