Editor-in-Chief: Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD, PhD
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BACKGROUND: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) causes intolerable pain that can be difficult to treat. Cryoablation is an underutilized pain management technique that can be incorporated into the treatment algorithm. Iovera® is a new handheld device that is small and lightweight making it very maneuverable and user friendly. It causes less tissue trauma enabling a more tolerable recovery period.
CASE REPORT: This case involves a 43-year-old woman with a history of idiopathic TN with concomitant continuous pain in the ophthalmic and maxillary divisions. After successful diagnostic blocks of the peripheral branches of the aforementioned nerves, iovera® was selected for the definitive procedure.
CONCLUSIONS: This device offers the benefit of shorter procedure time with less tissue trauma and easy maneuverability. It completely eliminated the patient’s pain from TN, which is known to be a debilitating disease. Longer periods of relief combined with less tissue damage and shorter procedure times make this an attractive option for pain relief in patients with TN or superficial neuropathic pain.
KEY WORDS: Trigeminal neuralgia, cryoablation, iovera
