Trigeminal ganglion

The trigeminal ganglion [Gasser] or semilunar ganglion - shown in the picture above left - together with the branches of the three branches of the trigeminal nerve

The trigeminal ganglion , also known as the semilunare ganglion or ganglion Gasseri - named after the descriptor Johann Lorenz Gasser , an Austrian anatomist (1723–1765) - is a crescent-shaped sensory ganglion ("nerve node") of the fifth cranial nerve , the trigeminal nerve .

The ganglion described before Gasser, for example by Giovanni Domenico Santorini , lies on the inside of the petrous pyramid . It contains the nerve cell bodies of afferent neurons of the cranial nerve V, which represent pseudounipolar nerve cells with different degrees of myelination . The trigeminal ganglion thus corresponds to the sensitive spinal ganglion of a spinal cord nerve . The blood vessels are supplied via the accessory meningeal artery .

The trigeminal ganglion is clinically important, especially in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia , since by switching off the corresponding nerves - today mostly by means of percutaneous thermocoagulation  - a significant pain relief can often be achieved. This is possible because the pain-conducting C-fibers are less strongly myelinated and can therefore be switched off more easily. In short anesthesia , the ganglion is sought out and exposed to targeted thermal stimuli, whereby the C-fibers perish and the conduction of pain is interrupted.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Johann Lorenz Gasser. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 460.

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