I am hoping someone can help me regarding neurosurgery. I started experiencing pain when I was 17 years old and was diagnosed with TN at 18. I am now 25 years old and have been experiencing TN pain for the last seven years and am on seven medications for the TN in addition to the medications for headaches and acid reflux. I am a patient of neurology at UCLA and two weeks ago saw a neurosurgeon at UCLA as I am seriously considering surgery for this summer. If I am to have surgery I will either have it at UCLA or at UC Irvine with Dr. Linskey. If you have had surgery at UCLA or UC Irvine, I would appreciate hearing from you with your experiences good or bad.
I hear nothing but praises for Dr. Linskey. He is helping so many people. There are a couple of really active groups on Facebook. Ask around there...he is mentioned all the time.
Dr. Linskey has a fabulous reputation as justjane37 mentioned. He is very knowledgable of TN and truly cares about his patients. He is also very active in the TN community, participating in the annual TN conferences put on by the Facial pain association.
I had a consult with Dr. Linskey and while he was not warm and fuzzy, I did feel he was quite ethical. He told me that I was not a candidate for MVD (I have what he terms to be Type 3) and that it would not help me. I had to respect him for this, as it would have been easy for him to take a nice surgical fee and send me on my way with a new plate in my head and no cure. Had I been a candidate for MVD, I would certainly have had him do it, from all the glowing reviews I’ve read about him. He was extremely knowledgeable and strives to make sure his patients understand everything he is telling them. He did not seem interested in the origin of my pain/injury, and that was a little disappointing, but he said that would not change the treatment he recommended for me, which was Gamma Knife. Best of luck to you!