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Peter J. Jannetta, MD

Arch Neurol. 1985;42(8):800.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The primary etiology of trigeminal neuralgia is vascular pulsatile compression of the junctional area of central trigeminal myelin (consisting of oligodendroglia) and peripheral myelin (consisting of Schwann's cells). The cause is located, therefore, in the cerebellopontile angle adjacent to the brain stem.^1,2 A rather specific clinical correlation exists relating the location of the vessel with the location of the facial pain. The most common etiologic vessel (80%) is the superior cerebellar artery which, in elongating as part of the aging process, compresses the nerve on the rostral-anterior aspect and causes lower facial (V_2-3or V₂) trigeminal neuralgia. Veins that do pulsate in the intact head, as Portnoy et al have demonstrated,³ are causal of trigeminal neuralgia in about 8% of patients. Benign extraaxial cerebellopontile angle tumors occasionally cause trigeminal neuralgia (5%), almost universally by causing secondary vascular compression of the nerve.

With the application of microsurgical . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Feb 6, 1985.

Reprint requests to Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 (Dr Jannetta).

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