Background and objectives: Although the association between multiple sclerosis and trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is well established, little is known about TN pain characteristics and postoperative pain outcomes after microvascular decompression (MVD) in patients with TN and other autoimmune diseases. In this study, we aim to describe presenting characteristics and postoperative outcomes in patients with concomitant TN and autoimmune disease who underwent an MVD.
Methods: A retrospective review of all patients who underwent an MVD at our institution between 2007 and 2020 was conducted. The presence and type of autoimmune disease were recorded for each patient. Patient demographics, comorbidities, clinical characteristics, postoperative Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) pain and numbness scores, and recurrence data were compared between groups.
Results: Of the 885 patients with TN identified, 32 (3.6%) were found to have concomitant autoimmune disease. Type 2 TN was more common in the autoimmune cohort ( P = .01). On multivariate analysis, concomitant autoimmune disease, younger age, and female sex were found to be significantly associated with higher postoperative BNI score ( P = .04, <0.001, and <0.001, respectively). In addition, patients with autoimmune disease were more likely to experience significant pain recurrence ( P = .009) and had shorter time to recurrence on Kaplan-Meier analysis ( P = .047), although this relationship was attenuated on multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression.
Conclusion: Patients with concomitant TN and autoimmune disease were more likely to have Type 2 TN, had worse postoperative BNI pain scores at the final follow-up after MVD, and were more likely to experience recurrent pain than patients with TN alone. These findings may influence postoperative pain management decisions for these patients and support a possible role for neuroinflammation in TN pain.
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