• F Ruiz-Juretschke, A J Vargas, L H Gonzalez-Quarante, O L Gil de Sagredo, A Montalvo, and C Fernandez-Carballal.
• Servicio de Neurocirugía, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, España. Electronic address: doc.fer@gmx.de.
• Neurologia. 2017 Sep 1; 32 (7): 424-430.

IntroductionThe increasing incidence of trigeminal neuralgia (TN) with age together with population ageing call for reexamination of surgical treatment options for refractory TN in elderly patients.MethodsRetrospective review of a consecutive series of patients older than 70 who underwent microvascular decompression (MVD) for refractory TN between 1997 and 2015. Outcomes based on the Barrow Neurological Institute pain intensity score (BNI score) and surgical complications were compared to those of patients younger than 70 undergoing MVD in the same period.ResultsForty patients older than 70 (mean = 74.8 years) underwent interventions. At a mean follow-up time of 34 months, 73% of the patients presented complete absence of pain without medication (BNI I) and 85% had good pain control with or without medication (BNI I-III). A comparison of these patients with the 85 patients younger than 70 treated surgically during the same period did not find a significant association between age and achievement of pain control (BNI I-II). However, there was a significant association between age older than 70 and complete pain relief (BNI I; P=.03). The mean hospital stay in patients over 70 was also significantly longer (P=.04), although the postsurgical complication rate was similar to that in younger patients.ConclusionsElderly patients with refractory TN may benefit from treatment with MVD and the probability of success and surgical risk are comparable to those in younger patients.Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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