The Technic and Results of Deep Injections of Alcohol for Trifacial Neuralgia

TECHNIC The technic of deep injections of the fifth nerve is simplicity itself. A straight needle is introduced at the lower border of the zygoma and pushed in until the point penetrates the sheath of the branch involved; then alcohol is injected through the needle into the nerve. Sometimes the procedure itself is as easy as this sounds. But often there are difficulties, occasionally disappointments; hence the numerous details and hints which follow, based on the treatment of 150 patients between Aug. 1, 1906, and Sept. 1, 1911.1 The ophthalmic division may he disposed of in a few words. I do not approve of deep injections of this branch. The optic and the third, fourth mid sixth nerves as well as large vascular channels are too near for perfect safety, and in my experience superficial injections of the supra-orbital have been uniformly successful. The patient being recumbent, with an