Introduction:
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is characterised by severe paroxysmal, stabbing and lancinating pain, by patients described as “unbearable”. It mainly affects elderly patients. Management of the problem poses serious difficulties in medical practice.

Aim:
The retrospective study was designed to assess effectiveness of cryoneuroablation applied to patients with TN in reducing the pain and achieving remission or temporary relief in the suffering.

Material and methods:
Analyses took into account medical histories of 107 patients, including 66 females and 39 males, ranging in age from 67 to 94 years. The procedure was performed in an outpatient setting, under local anaesthesia, using a cryoprobe with operating surface of 0.5 cm in diameter.

Results and conclusions:
In all the patients the cryoneuroablation treatment was followed by a period with no pain (remission), ranging from 4 to 48 months. A pain-free period of less than six months was observed in 10 patients, and more than 30 months in 25 patients, i.e. one in five individuals subjected to the treatment. Although local cryoneuroablation applied to peripheral branches of trigeminal nerve does not lead to permanent recovery from TN, it allows those affected to achieve remission ranging from a few months to a few years, therefore the method can be recommended as a TN treatment, for use in outpatient settings. Being minimally invasive, the method can be used in patients with systemic comorbidities. Owing to the effective regeneration of the nerve damaged by low temperatures, cryoneuroablation can be recognised among the methods recommended for widespread use in treatment of TN.