Trigeminal Neuralgia: The pain is a given, the cause is not

Abstract

Trigeminal neuralgia is a severe facial pain. Dural Arteriovenous Fistula is a very rare cause of this neuralgia. We present a 68 year old male with a severe left Trigeminal Neuralgia refractory to medical treatment without any abnormal finding in his initial brain MRI. One year later, α new brain MRI revealed a huge dural Arteriovenous Fistula (AVF) as the underlying cause of this painful prosopalgia. Successful transarterial dAVF embolization improved patient’s symptoms and subsequently his quality of life