Yan Liu,
Peiyun Zhou 
For correspondence:- Peiyun Zhou
Email: peifuxian08695800@163.com
Accepted: 29 October 2022
Published: 30 November 2022
Citation:
Liu Y, Zhou P.
Efficacy of the combination of carbamazepine and pulsed-radiofrequency in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. Trop J Pharm Res 2022; 21(11):2473-2478
doi:
10.4314/tjpr.v21i11.29
© 2022 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the effect of the combination of carbamazepine and pulsed-radiofrequency therapy on trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and changes in inflammation status in vivo.
Methods: Ninety-seven trigeminal neuralgia patients treated in Wuhan Fourth Hospital from January 2018 to January 2021 were analyzed retrospectively. Forty-five patients treated with pulsed-radiofrequency therapy alone were designated as the control group (CG), while 52 who underwent carbamazepine and pulse-radiofrequency combination therapy were enrolled in the study group (SG). Changes in serum inflammatory factors, viz, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), were recorded before and after treatment. Similarly, changes in pain visual analog scale (VAS) score, quality of life score, and oxidative stress index were assessed before and after treatment; so also were changes in clinical efficacy and incidence of adverse reactions.
Results: After treatment, VAS score, and levels of IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α in SG were lower than those in CG, while the score of quality of life in SG was higher (p < 0.05). The clinical efficacy of SG was higher than that of CG, but there was no significant difference in incidence of adverse reactions (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The therapeutic combination of carbamazepine and pulsed-radiofrequency is more effective than pulsed-radiofrequency alone in the short-term treatment of TN in patients. It produces better relief of pain, reduces inflammation and improves patients’ quality of life. However, it does not affect the incidence of adverse reactions.
Keywords: Carbamazepine, Pulsed-radiofrequency therapy, Trigeminal neuralgia
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