Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia and its Surgical Management

Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the surgical management of Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia.Materials and Methods: It a retrospective study of seven (7) cases of Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia who were surgically managed at Department of Neurosurgery Quaid-e-Azam Medical College / Bahawal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur. It is retrospective study with study period of eight (8) years from January 2003 to December 2010 with follow up period of two years.Results: Four (4) were female and three (3) were male patients. Age range was 40 to 60 years with average age of 45 years. In all the patients except one, IX nerve sectioning alongwith sectioning of upper rootlets of X nerve was performed in the posterior fossa through retrosigmoid approach. In one patient, Microvascular Decom-pression was performed for the pain syndrome. There was recurrence of same pain in that patient after six months of surgery. Second surgery was done in that patient to section the IX nerve only in the posterior fossa. All cases were that of “IDIOPATHIC GLOSSOPHRYNGEAL NEURALGIA”. In all the patients there was satisfactory re-lief of pain after surgery with no significant complications related to the procedure.Conclusion: So the sectioning of The Glossophryngeal Nerve is a useful procedure for the relief of this pain syndrome. Another good alternative is Microvascular Decompression of this nerve at root entry zone in the pos-terior fossa