Relationship between Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy and Trigeminal Neuralgia

Abstract

Background: The involvement of the spinal trigeminal tract affcets the cervical spinal cord People with Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) are more likely to experience concurrent degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) compared to a matched control group without TN.

Objectives: The main goal of this study was to determine the existence and strength of a relationship between Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) and Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM).
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Bacha Khan College of Dentistry from January 2023 to January 2025, at the Department of Oral Medicine, included 100 patients with neurological disorders. TN and degenerative Myelopathy were assessed using clinical evaluations. In the first step, the study’s findings were statistically analyzed to determine whether DCM and TN had any relational significance. The p-value was calculated. The research was conducted in accordance with established ethical standards, and the participants were informed and witnessed all procedures. SPSS 22.0 was used to analyze all the data.

Result: Most patients were men mean age 52.22 ± 8.22 years. There were 41 patients with rural residency and 59 patients with urban residency. The majority of the patients , (78%) were married. The assessment of the gathered information indicated that DCM was significantly related to TN, with a calculated p-value of 0.001. While evaluating the results obtained from the sample of 100 patients, it was apparent that a remarkable proportion suffered
from both DCM and TN simultaneously. We found that, 65% of cases had DCM and 35% had TN.. The frequency of both DM and TN was found in 45% of cases. We found a strong correlation between DM and TN (p= 0.001).

Conclusions: This study shows a strong correlation between Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM), emphasizing the necessity of multidisciplinary cooperation and additional investigations. When DCM and TN coexist, early identification and specialized therapy strategies are essential for improving patient outcomes.