This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Aetiology

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Exact cause of trigeminal neuralgia remains unclear (1)

  • most cases are considered idiopathic (1)
  • many are associated with demyelination of the trigeminal nerve. This can be due to
    • vascular compression of the nerve root by aberrant or tortuous vessels
    • multiple sclerosis or tumours affecting the nerve root. (1)

Several other causes have been described as well in which demyelination may also be an underlying cause e.g. - amyloid infiltration, arteriovenous malformations, bony compression, and small infarcts in the pons and medulla (1).

Reference:

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.