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Stereotactic radiosurgery is another treatment modality that can be used to treat trigeminal neuralgia type 1. In this treatment, what we’re doing is we’re delivering a very, very high dose of radiation to the trigeminal nerve, but we’re delivering all of that radiation to a very, very tiny spot. That gives this controlled injury to the nerve which, again, interrupts the conduction and stops the painful episodes on the patient’s face. In fact, the machine that I’m standing in front of is a radiosurgical unit. This is the couch that the patient would sit on and the machine behind me would precisely deliver that radiation just to that area of the nerve. You don’t lose your hair during this. The other parts of the brain don’t get radiation and all of the radiation is delivered to that nerve – the trigeminal nerve. In most patients, pain relief is felt not immediately, but a few months later and in many patients for years to come.
