Trigeminal neuralgia, also known as "painful spasm", is a nervous system disease characterized by short-term repeated severe pain in the distribution area of facial trigeminal nerve. It often occurs on one side, mainly on the cheek, upper lip, upper gum, lower lip and lower gum. Seizures often occur suddenly, showing lightning-like, short-term and severe pain; Can be teardrop-shaped, electrocautery-shaped, knife-shaped or acupuncture-shaped; The time of each attack suddenly stops from a few seconds to a minute or two, at most half an hour; There is no pain during the intermission; The course of the disease can be periodic, and the disease can be diagnosed according to its typical clinical manifestations, while the MRI of the head is often normal.

At present, there are many methods to treat trigeminal neuralgia in western medicine, but most of them can't be completely cured, which is easy to relapse and produces many side effects.

1, oral western medicine

These drugs, such as carbamazepine, ritodrine and phenytoin sodium, can temporarily relieve pain or relieve pain. These drugs are resistant, and the oral dose is gradually increasing, and the effect is getting worse and worse. They have great side effects. Long-term use can cause granulocytopenia, simple thrombocytopenia, hematological diseases, memory loss, vision and hearing loss, liver function damage and so on.

2. Blocking therapy

Acupoint injection of drugs (anhydrous alcohol, glycerin, vitamin B 1, vitamin B2, etc. ) is used to paralyze and block nerves, relieve symptoms and temporarily relieve pain. After repeated blocking, the analgesic effect is not good, the average remission period is 6 months, and it is easy to relapse. And the side effects are great, and the side effects that are often caused are:

(1) Patients with closed mouth may have sensory loss and numbness on the closed side, and some patients have difficulty in opening their mouth and chewing.

(2) local edema after sealing.

(3) local subcutaneous hyperemia after sealing.

(4) Injury to surrounding tissues during closure, such as injection into suborbital foramen, leads to serious complication of ophthalmoplegia, namely diplopia; Even blind.

(5) When the patient does not cooperate, the patient moves his head or suddenly opens his mouth and closes his mouth, which is easy to break the needle at the puncture site.

3. Radio frequency surgery

Also known as thermocoagulation, a puncture needle is used to pierce the semilunar ganglion, and a radio frequency instrument is used to generate electric heat in the tissue. According to the temperature tolerance of different nerve fibers, the fibers that transmit pain are selectively destroyed, so as to achieve the effect of analgesia. Its sequelae include blindness, facial paralysis and cerebral hemorrhage. And it is easy to relapse. After recurrence, some patients were treated with other methods with poor results.

4, surgery

It can be divided into peripheral nerve amputation, nerve root amputation, trigeminal fasciotomy, trigeminal nerve compression or decompression, and trigeminal nerve microvascular decompression. All the above methods destroy the trigeminal nerve, so that the trigeminal nerve loses its normal physiological function to temporarily relieve pain, which can cause sequelae such as facial paralysis, hemiplegia and ataxia. After a period of time, the trigeminal nerve regenerates, causing pain again, and the recurrence rate is high.

5, acupuncture and laser treatment: often a pain relief.

6, X knife, gamma knife treatment: burning nerves through rays, its cost is high, and it will also cause recurrence and sequelae after the book.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been studying trigeminal neuralgia for a long time, including "head wind", "brain wind" and "head wind", which are similar to the current trigeminal neuralgia. "On Su Wenfeng" says: "The head wind is sweating evil, and the first wind is 1 day, so it is very sick and the headache can't come out." Traditional Chinese medicine has been used to treat trigeminal neuralgia for thousands of years. Under the guidance of the overall concept and the principle of syndrome differentiation and treatment, doctors in past dynasties have summarized many effective treatment methods, which have provided valuable experience for us to treat trigeminal neuralgia.

Traditional Chinese medicine treatment of trigeminal neuralgia is mainly prescription drugs, and the principle of treatment is to seek wind and dredge collaterals to relieve pain, which not only makes the pain symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia disappear quickly, but also dredges facial meridians and channels, so as to restore the physiological function of trigeminal nerve to normal, thus achieving the goal of treating both the symptoms and root causes. It is an ideal treatment for patients with trigeminal neuralgia, with high cure rate, no recurrence, no nerve damage, no sequelae and no pain.