Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), a neuropathic pain syndrome, is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain as “a sudden and usually unilateral severe brief stabbing recurrent pain in the distribution of one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve 1).
Also known as prosopalgia, or Fothergill's disease.
The clinical association between TN and hemifacial spasm is the so-called tic douloureux.
It has been described as among the most painful conditions known to mankind.
Trigeminal neuralgia and deafferentation neuropathic pain, or trigeminal neuropathy, are different symptomatologies, rarely reported to present together.