Trigeminal Neuralgia: COVID19 - Video Update

September 2021: COVID19 and Trigeminal Neuralgia. Where are we? An update with TN expert neurosurgeon Mark R. McLaughlin, MD, FACS, FAANS.

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I'm just here to give you another video my last video about trigeminal neuralgia I had scrubs on and I have decided now to start dressing up on Tuesdays and Wednesdays trying to get back into the routine to talk to my patients and what I want to talk about today is COVID19 and COVID19 vaccinations and neurological symptoms.

I've had a number of patients come into my office with exacerbations of their Trigeminal Neuralgia after COVID19 vaccinations from all the different vaccines, from Moderna. from Pfizer, and from J&J and this is concerning to me and it's concerning my patients. For some of them, we've had to actually bump up their medications to get some control. In addition I've had other patients that have had COVID19 infections and have noticed unusual neurological symptoms including twitching of their muscles, funny sensations in their arms and their legs and I just want to let my patients know that I'm looking into this. I've heard this from other doctors. I'm going to be doing a literature review in the near future and I'm going to come back to you in the next week with some information about this but I think it's real.

I still think it's VERY important for you to GET YOUR VACCINATION because the people that have had COVID infections are clearly having much more severe neurological complications, than patients that might have some mild transient neurological symptoms with their vaccination, so I'm going to encourage everybody to continue to get your vaccines if you haven't had them. If you need boosters get your boosters, and I'm going to be back with you in a week in terms of more information as to what we know about neurological symptoms and unusual symptoms that people are having after they experience COVID infection or COVID vaccinations so we'll be back soon.

More about Trigeminal Neuralgia

Princeton Brain, Spine & Sports neurosurgeon Mark R. McLaughlin, MD, FACS, FAANS trained with Peter Jannetta, M.D., the "father" of modern microvascular decompression surgery for trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, and other cranial nerve rhizopathies. Dr. McLaughlin worked closely with Dr. Jannetta in the ongoing research, and was the lead author of the paper 

"Microvascular decompression of cranial nerves: lessons learned after 4400 operations" published in the Journal of Neurosurgery in January 1999. On PUBMED

He was also co-author with Drs Jannetta and Casey of "Technique of Microvascular Decompression: A Technical Note"

Other TN resources include:

Trigeminal Neuralgia Factsheet at NIH

Trigeminal Neuralgia Overview at American Association of Neurological Surgeons

Rare Disease Database at National Organization for Rare Disorders

Covid-19 Resources

The Lancet is the world's oldest peer-reviewed medical journal. Their

The Lancet Covid-19 Resources page is trustworthy and contains current research.

Neuralgia Expert Articles by Princeton Brain & Spine Founder Dr. Mark McLaughin

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Trigeminal Neuralgia: COVID19 - Video Update

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Video January 2022 : Dr. McLaughlin highlights the current literature as it relates to Trigeminal Neuralgia and the Covid Virus. What have we learned?

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A January 2022 review of medical literature related to COVID-19 vaccination, Trigeminal Neuralgia, and Neurological Complications. What does the medical literature tell us?

WGN TV Video About Trigeminal Neuralgia

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Trigeminal Neuralgia : The Interview

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Saint Peter's Healthcare Video: Trigeminal Neuralgia

One of my great passions is the treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia. It is a traumatizing and painful condition. This video was prepared for Saint Peters Healthcare. In it, I answer some common questions about TN.