The purpose of the present work was to study the effectiveness of lidocaine blockades (LB) in patients with severe forms of the trigeminal neuralgia (TN) in the close and long-term perspective.

We analyzed the results of treatment of 45 patients (15 men and 30 women) with severe forms of TN using peripheral branch blockadess with 2 % lidocaine solution, which were performed according to the commonly accepted method. The age of patients ranged from 34 to 88 years (mean ± SD — 63,69 ± 12,31). All patients were referred to a neurosurgical clinic due to the ineffectiveness of previous drug therapy.

The effectiveness was estimated at different periods after applied blockades using visual and analog rating scales at different times: at hospitalization (before the blockade started), in 30 minutes, in six hours, in one day (24 hours), in three days, in one month, in three months, in six months, in one year, in two years, and in three years after the blockades.

LB of peripheral branches of trigeminal nerve in patients with severe pharmacoresistant forms of TN appeared to be effective in 100.00 % of patients in the first 3—6 hours after the implementation. Subsequently, the analgesic effect of NB is decreasing, especially in the coming weeks, that necessitated the use of more radical methods of neurosurgical treatment. Excellent long-term (after 2—3 years) results after the use of blockades on the background of adequately selected pathogenetic therapy of both the main and concomitant diseases of the nervous system and internal organs were achieved in 4 (8.89 %) of 45 patients.

Thus, we can conclude that in case of ineffectiveness of conservative drug therapy, using of LB of the peripheral branches of trigeminal nerve is advisable within the complex treatment of patients with TN.