• Pascal Lavergne, Keenan Piper, Shreya Vinjamuri, Patrick Kelly, and James J Evans.
• Department of Neurological Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Department of Surgery, Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal, University of Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
• World Neurosurg. 2024 Apr 1; 184: e9e16e9-e16.

BackgroundTrigeminal neuralgia is a facial pain syndrome most commonly caused by a neurovascular compression (NVC) of the trigeminal nerve. Microvascular decompression (MVD) is the most durable surgical treatment; however, patients without an NVC are not candidates for this procedure. Alternative treatments such as percutaneous rhizotomy and radiosurgery are effective but with higher recurrence rates. Internal neurolysis (IN) is a less frequently used procedure that aims to provide long-term relief to patients without NVC.ObjectiveWe present the surgical techniques for IN developed at our institution. We also discuss the technical nuances related to nerve consistency and present a new classification based on these findings. We provide pain and numbness outcomes for our cohort of patients stratified by the extent of neurolysis and nerve consistency.MethodsPatients with medically intractable trigeminal neuralgia eligible for posterior fossa exploration are eligible for MVD and possible IN. If no NVC or a mild NVC is encountered, IN is performed. We have divided the procedure into 4 main steps: opening the outer connective sheath, fascicular dissection, inside-out dissection and the fascicular irrigation technique. Trigeminal nerve consistency has been classified into 3 main types: type 1 is soft and friable; type 2 is intermediate consistency and ideal for neurolysis; and type 3 is firm and presents a more challenging dissection.ConclusionsIn the absence of microvascular compression, we advocate for a thorough neurolysis using the techniques described in our article.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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