Association Between Trigeminal Neuralgia and Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: A Cross-Sectional Propensity Matched Study using United States Data

Background: Limited research has suggested that trigeminal neuralgia (TN), an often-idiopathic pain disorder affecting the head and face, may arise from compression of the cervical spinal cord due to involvement of the spinal trigeminal tract. We hypothesize that adults with TN will have a greater likelihood of concurrent degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) compared to matched adults without TN. Methods: We will retrieve de-identified data from a United States network (TriNetX, Inc.) including medical records and medical/pharmacy claims, of >120 million patients attending academic healthcare institutions, with a data range spanning the previous 20 years. We will create two groups of adults (≥18 years old) based on the presence/absence of TN, excluding individuals with predisposing conditions for TN (e.g., multiple sclerosis, ophthalmic and oral/ maxillofacial surgery) and propensity match for potential sources of selection bias (e.g., age, sex, body mass index, diabetes mellitus, hypertensive diseases, migraine, osteoporosis). Results: The prevalence of DCM per group and likelihood of DCM will be calculated using an odds ratio and reported with 95% confidence intervals and P-value both before and after matching. Conclusions: This will be the largest study to our knowledge to examine for a potential association between TN and DCM.