ArticlePain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain2026
Efficacy and Safety of Repeated Radiofrequency Thermocoagulation on Trigeminal Neuralgia Patients.
Article in Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTrigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a pain condition characterized by paroxysmal, electric shock-like facial pain, affecting one or more areas of the branches. Approximately 33%-50% of patients require invasive treatment. Radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFTC) is an established method for managing drug-resistant and chronic TN. This study evaluates treatment response quality and complication rates in repeated RFTC procedures for TN patients.
methodsIn this retrospective analysis, patient records were extracted from the electronic medical records of Kuopio University Hospital, using the trigeminal neuralgia diagnosis code and the procedure code for thermal destruction of a cranial nerve. Data collected included sex, age, treatment outcomes at 3-month follow-up, presence of complications, technical details, and procedural success for each intervention.
resultsData from 140 patients were analyzed. An excellent or good response was observed in 79% of patients after the first procedure, 62.9% after the second, and 42.3% after the third. Complication rates were 15.7%, 19.6%, and 42.9%, respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that complication risk was significantly associated with tertiary procedure and female sex. Development of painful post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy (PTTN) was more common after repeated interventions; 1.4% after the first, 3.1% after the second, and 13.8% after the third procedure.
conclusionsRFTC is an effective and safe method for treatment for persistent trigeminal neuralgia when conservative treatment fails. However, its benefits diminish, and risks increase with each additional procedure, particularly the third. Based on these findings, reintervention should generally be limited to a single repeat procedure.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.