I have been doing a bit of reading about medicine again for the past few days. Well, it has covered a span of a few weeks actually. It started when I was rearranging things a bit around the house and I took out my nursing books for full view (so I can see them all the time and maybe be interested enough to open one).
Medical-surgical nursing has been one of my weakest areas when I was studying. So I decided to open that one first. I stumbled upon the inflictions or diseases on the cranial and facial nerves and read that aside from the most popular/most common disease, Bell’s Palsy, there is a disease called Trigeminal Neuralgia that afflicts an estimated 1 in 15,000 people. It is often misdiagnosed so the numbers may actually be a bit higher, considering it develops most often after you hit the age of 50 and more cases have been reported with women.
What is it actually? It is commonly called tic doloureux or prosopalgia and what happens when you are experiencing TN is that you have stabbing and excruciating pain in the eyes, lips, nose, scalp, forehead, and jaw. It sometimes is a short experience but gradually becomes longer.
However, there is hope for treatment. At the Skull Base Institute, you can get treatment under its director, Dr. Shahinian. He is the only doctor of today who has gone lengthier training to be able to perform skull base, craniofacial and microvascular fellowships.. Skull base surgeries are done using minimally invasive endoscopic techniques. It is actually the only institute doing fully endoscopic surgery to treat acoustic neuromas, meningiomas, trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm.
How do they treat TN? Patients can find this special expertise at the Facial Pain, Spasm and Paralysis Center (Facial PSP Center) at The Skull Base Institute. The endoscope is used to treat TN by inserting it to a dime-size opening behind the ear. Through this opening, surgeons insert a 2.7 mm endoscope. They can then identify the problem and perform the procedure – meticulously separating the nerve and blood vessel, and inserting a Teflon disk between them. Once the pressure has been relieved, patients often report immediate and complete relief from the pain.
Pituitary Tumor diseases are often the ones the go undiagnosed for a long time given their common symptoms. It is still best to consult with your doctor if you have been experiencing common pains more frequently and for long periods of time.
