I had an MVD one moth ago, and I've had no pain relief. I had my follow-up appointment with the neurosurgeon, and he said he didn't find a vessel compressing the nerve. He offered the options of rhizotomy or Gamma Knife. I am 37 years old.
For those with a failed MVD, what procedure did you choose (if any)?
My MVD relieved the shocks of TN2 but not the chronic pain of TN2. Seven months later, I had a peripheral nerve stimulator implanted . This device completely controls my pain, and I no longer take any medicine.
Christine
I had my surgery with Dr. Lee March of 2014 and was pain free for 8 months. It returned and I was put on tegretol which I am still taking. I did see Dr. Brown in NY to get another opinion as to what is going on. He performs an mri at his facility and then he sees you. I have another vein wrapped around my trigeminal on the right and a compression on the left. ( I had never mentioned to him or anyone that I did have bouts on the left side) So as for now I am still just living with it. I stay on my meds and try to take care of myself. I haven't gotten to the point where I want try another surgery or procedure.
I am not a physician but I believe that no nerve compression means there are no options. Generally if there is no nerve compression then the pain is related from trauma. For instance, I have no nerve compression. However, I had severe trauma to the side of my face and it caused hardened scar tissue under the skin (calcified tissue).
I have no compression and the specialists at OHSU in the TN clinic specifically said because there was not compression, then I was not a candidate for MVD, Gamma Knife or Rhizotomy. I have a bunch of nerve bundles (more than most) and the doctor was willing to do an MVD to explore for a compression, but to me, the risk was not worth the 5% chance of it relieving the pain. Plus, if you dig around this site for long enough, you see all the terrible things that happen from failed MVD's.
I had MVD surgery in 2007 at age 21 and it was not successful they doubled my incision size to 5 In. And put 2 pieces of Teflon inside instead of just 1 and I have so many problems from my scar I can’t put any pressure on it at all. I can’t even lay on a pillow on my right side. I have a choice of getting the gamma knife surgery but am not ready to have more issues so I’m just trying to live with the pain which is not fun at all. Good luck to u hope u find some relief.
i was told by my neurosurgeon that the nerves could take up to a year to settle down after surgery so please don’t lose hope just yet.