Abstract

SADA OVALLE, Teresa  and  KASSIAN RANK, Alicia. Probable relación entre la neuralgia del trigémino y patología de columna cervical: Reporte de Casos. Rev. Soc. Esp. Dolor [online]. 2008, vol.15, n.5, pp.302-307. ISSN 1134-8046.

Background. The trigeminal neuralgia (TN) was first described in 1773 by John Fothergill, it is described as a sudden pain, unilateral usually, intense and brief, stabbing, in the distribution of one or more of the trigeminal branches. It has being described a wide range of causes such as conditions affecting paranasal sinus, tooth, oral abscess, temporomandibular articulation abnormalities, rheumatologic diseases, tumors and others. There are few descriptions found of cervical pathology as a presentation for trigeminal neuralgia. Objective. Describe the clinical findings of four patients initially diagnosed as a trigeminal neuralgia who went into medical an invasive trigeminal treatment and that evolved with symptoms of pathology at the cervical level, they were studied and we found pathology at this level that vary between cervical arthritis and cervical narrow canal. Materials and Methods We made a revisión of expedients from a four case series of trigeminal neuralgia as a presentation of cervical origin pathology at the pain clinic of the Hospital General de México. Cases. Four cases from 31 to 68 years that meet the International Headache Association for trigeminal neuralgia, previously treated with anticonvulsants by different services, the patients had been submitted to anti-inflammatory blockades of different trigeminal branches without success. With time they show cervical symptomatology and were studied with X ray and magnetic resonance beneath other studies, we found cervical pathology, for this motive they ere treated with cervical nerves blockades and they improved in 80- 90%, they also get treatment for the specific cervical disease. Conclusions. Even when trigeminal neuralgia as a presentation of cervical pathology is uncommon, it is a differential diagnosis that has to be ruled out. The anatomopatological explanation for this presentation is that the spinal nucleus of the trigeminal nerve ends at C2 -C3 cervical segments and the nociceptive impulses arriving from the neck can make synapses at this level and give rise to a clinical setting as this.

Keywords : Trigeminal neuralgia; Cervical pathology; Facial Pain.

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