Trigeminal Neuralgia Due to Unilateral Early Bifurcated Superior Cerebellar Artery: Case Report and Literature Review

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is considered a debilitating pain syndrome resulting from a neurovascular conflict in the prepontine cistern, usually through compression of the trigeminal nerve by the superior cerebellar artery (SCA), resulting in neural pathology at the root entry zone. This is a case report of a patient whose TN symptoms were attributed to an anatomical variant of the SCA, managed successfully through conservative treatment. Anatomical variants of the SCA have been related to TN. However, this is the first reported case in the PubMed literature of primary TN due to an unilateral early bifurcated SCA treated conservatively with first-line sodium channel blockers with a good outcome.