Brain wave recording during nerve surgery for trigeminal neuralgia facial pain
Checks whether recording scalp nerve signals during rhizotomy surgery is workable in trigeminal neuralgia.
Key facts
- Who runs it
- University of Minnesota
- Where
- Minneapolis, United StatesSee the site
- Trial code
- Registry title
- Trigeminal Evoked Responses to Improve Rhizotomy
- Status
- Recruiting
- Phase
- Early phase 1
- People taking part
- 30 people, planned
- Started
- 1 Nov 2023
- Expected to end
- 1 Nov 2027
- Type of study
- Interventional, 2 groupsOne group gets an existing treatment, for comparison.
- Treatments tested
- TSEP + rhizotomy surgery
- TSEPs recording only
- Record updated
- 3 November 2026
Who can take part
AI summary
From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.
The trial is looking for adults with trigeminal neuralgia (sudden, shock-like face pain) who are scheduled for a rhizotomy procedure. It also takes healthy volunteers, whose nerve signals are recorded in a lab.
- Age
- 18 years or older
- Sex
- All sexes can join
- Disease stage
- Patients: facial pain from trigeminal neuralgia, with a planned percutaneous rhizotomy (a nerve procedure done through the skin).
Main reasons for not taking part
- Patients: facial pain whose cause is unclear, not clearly trigeminal neuralgia
- Patients: the rhizotomy procedure is canceled
- Healthy volunteers: current or past facial pain, such as TMD or TGN
- Healthy volunteers: history of migraine, or of fibromyalgia, IBS or CRPS
- Healthy volunteers: chronic pain within the last month
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 4 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- Adults of 18 years or older
- Scheduled to undergo percutaneous rhizotomy for facial pain
Who cannot take part
- For Healthy control: Diagnosis or history of facial pain such as TMD or TGN, History of migraine, History of any functional pain disorder: fibromyalgia, IBS, CRPS or Recent chronic pain (within last month)
- For TGN: Facial pain of unclear origin (i.e. not clearly TGN pain) or Rhizotomy procedure canceled
Where in United States
- University of MinnesotaMinneapolis, United StatesContact: Matthew MapleTaking people
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
Trigeminal neuralgia (TGN) is a debilitating pain syndrome where electrical, shock- like jolts of pain affect the face. Trigeminal somatosensory evoked potentials (TSEPs) provide a promising modality for measuring the trigeminal sensory and nociceptive pathway by using peripheral stimulation of the trigeminal nerve (on the skin) and measuring low latency evoked potentials on the scalp (contralateral sensory cortex). While TSEPs have been measured in the past, it is not clear if implementing TSEPs into a routine neurosurgical rhizotomy procedure will be feasible. This is a prospective cohort study examining the feasibility of routinely performing TSEPs during rhizotomies for TGN.
The 2 groups in the trial
- TGN patientsTreatment being tested
Patients with TGN who will undergo rhizotomy surgery as the standard of care
Treatment: TSEP + rhizotomy surgery
- Healthy volunteersExisting treatment, for comparison
Healthy volunteers for whom TSEPS will be recorded in a lab setting
Treatment: TSEPs recording only
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- Trigeminal Evoked Responses to Improve Rhizotomy
- Plain-language title
- Brain wave recording during nerve surgery for trigeminal neuralgia facial painGenerated from the registry record. The registry title is the official one.
- AI summary
- From the trial's eligibility criteria. Read by machine on 14 November 2026.
- Record updated
- 3 November 2026