Release Date: July 12, 2022 | Run Time: 54:30 | Download the transcript
Imagine not being able to brush your teeth, eat a sandwich or cuddle your children because of the intense pain. That's the reality for many people living with trigeminal neuralgia, an unrelenting form of chronic facial pain.
For many of these patients, a smile, a kiss, or even a gust of wind can unleash a throbbing so severe, some describe it as a 'lightning bolt to the face.' And as we learn in the latest episode of Your Complex Brain, many patients live with this condition for years – often decades – without a diagnosis or proper treatment.
"These patients find themselves going from doctor to doctor, telling them about their suffering. Sometimes, it's heard. Sometimes, it's not heard," says Dr. Mojgan Hodaie, a Neurosurgeon and Senior Scientist with Krembil Brain Institute. "Patients come to me after having had this condition upwards of 10, 20, 30 years. 30 years of suffering with this pain is just unimaginable and speaks volumes as to how silent this pain is."
Because trigeminal neuralgia is so rare and so misunderstood, some physicians have never even heard of it. Luckily, many patients here in Canada, and from around the world, find their way to Dr. Hodaie, who performs more procedures to treat trigeminal neuralgia than any other neurosurgeon in Canada. In fact, a recent CBC story celebrated her 1,000th surgery for the condition.
But Dr. Hodaie isn't satisfied with just treating patients. On the podcast, she discusses her quest to better understand where the pain originates from and where it travels within the brain, so that she can develop new – and more personalized – treatment options for patients. Dr. Hodaie also hopes her groundbreaking research and the advanced imaging techniques her team is pioneering, may one day help those who suffer with other types of chronic pain disorders, as well.
"If you add up the number of people that suffer from chronic pain and the number of people that suffer from other disorders, such as heart disease, and so on, chronic pain is by far larger in numbers," she says. "It really needs to be attended to and we really need to advance the ways that we look after our patients."
Listen to the full episode and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and everywhere else you get your podcasts.
Dr. Mojgan Hodaie is a Neurosurgeon and Senior Scientist with Krembil Brain Institute, as well as the Greg Wilkins-Barrick Chair in International Surgery at UHN, Surgical co-Director of the Joey & Toby Tanenbaum Family Gamma Knife Centre, and the Education Lead at Krembil Brain Institute, travelling the world to teach and mentor the next generation of neurosurgeons. Dr. Hodaie is also a Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Hodaie's clinical treatment is focused primarily on the management of facial pain. Her research team has a particular interest in advanced MR technology approaches for the study of facial neuropathic pain.
Asma Naheed is a registered MRI Technician with 15 years of practice in MRI. Among Asma's many accomplishments are her contributions to several clinical research studies, including High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HiFU), Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) studies. Outside of her professional interests, Asma enjoys cooking a variety of Pakistani dishes during her free time.
Joshua Johnston, PhD, is a former wildland fire fighter. Today he is a Forest Fire Research Scientist with the Canadian Forest Service and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the development of remote sensing tools for studying the physical properties of combustion and fire behaviour, as well as the adaptation of remote sensing tools for operational fire management. In 2017 Josh launched Canada's first national emergency tactical wildfire detection and mapping systems, known as Torchlight. Josh is also a husband and a father of two young boys, an avid outdoorsman, a formally trained painter and photographer, and an endurance cyclist. In 2021, he cycled to raise money in support of Dr. Hodaie and Krembil Brain Institute, in recognition of their support for him and his family.
Bonus Content: Hear more from Josh.
Josh Johnston | Run Time: 16:19 | Download the transcript