Abstract
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), traditionally referred as tic douloureux, is a rare (incidence of about 4 per 100,000 cases per year) form of chronic neuropathic pain characterized by spontaneous or elicited paroxysms of electric shock-like or stabbing pain in a region of the face [4]. While the etiology of TN is not fully understood, most cases occur in a sporadic manner and are associated with intracranial vascular compression of the trigeminal nerve root that is often assumed to be the pain-initiating mechanism.
However, although compression of the trigeminal root appears to be common in the aging population, only few individuals develop TN [7]. Conversely, many TN patients do no show compression of the trigeminal nerve [8].
TN can also occur in a familial manner suggesting the existence of predisposing genetic factors [3]. Whole genome sequencing studies have indeed revealed numerous genetic variants especially in genes encoding ion channels [9].
However, the pathological relevance of ion channel variants in the etiology of TN remains largely unknown.