Familial trigeminal neuralgia - Case report and review of the literature

The authors report the case of a 45-year-old woman with medically intractab le trigeminal neuralgia (TN) in whom a good clinical response to partial se ctioning of the trigeminal nerve was attained. No evidence of vascular comp ression was found intraoperatively. Several other members of her family, in volving three generations, also suffered from TN. The treatment of all affe cted patients is discussed in the context of a literature review in which t he controversies surrounding the origins of the disease and treatment optio ns for patients with the familial variant of TN are addressed.