• Zelin Weng, Mohammed A Abou Halawa, Xiaojian Liu, Xiaojun Zhou, and Shanglong Yao.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China.
• J Craniofac Surg. 2013 Mar 1;24(2):479-82.

AbstractTrigeminal neuralgia is the worst pain that human beings have ever experienced. Surgery might be the only solution for some patients because no other way can relieve their severe pain. They experience intolerable pain before operation and during radiofrequency thermocoagulation of the gasserian ganglion. The aim of the current study was to prospectively evaluate the preoperative and perioperative analgesic effects of preoperative single peripheral nerve block. Sixty patients with classic trigeminal neuralgia who were scheduled to undergo radiofrequency thermocoagulation of the gasserian ganglion were randomly divided into a control group (n = 30) and a nerve block group (n = 30). Patients in the nerve block group were treated with single peripheral nerve block using 1% lidocaine and betamethasone on the day of admission. Average pain, worst pain, quality of sleep, and analgesia satisfaction were evaluated before surgery. The incidence and intensity of perioperative episodic pain were determined before the needle reached the gasserian ganglion. Compared with the control group, a single peripheral nerve block significantly attenuated average pain (P < 0.01) and worst pain (P < 0.01), ameliorated the quality of sleep (P < 0.01), and increased analgesia satisfaction (P < 0.01). Moreover, patients in the nerve block group experienced a decrease in incidence (P < 0.01) and intensity (P < 0.01) of episodic pain during surgery as compared with the participants in the control group. These results demonstrate that a single peripheral nerve block may be an effective way to relieve preoperative and perioperative intolerable pain of trigeminal neuralgia.

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