Paula Chávez, a 71-year-old from El Paso, Texas, endured severe facial pain for a decade before receiving a diagnosis and treatment at UTHealth Houston. Her symptoms began suddenly with intense pain behind her left eye, which she described as feeling like an electric shock "but 100 times stronger." The pain became constant in 2024, severely impacting her daily life.
Despite consulting various medical professionals in her region—including dentists, cardiologists, and neurologists—Chávez was unable to find relief or an explanation for her condition. Her daughter, Violeta Chávez, PhD, who is an associate professor at UTHealth Houston’s McGovern Medical School, recommended that she seek care at the institution.
At UTHealth Houston, Nitin Tandon, MD, professor of neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School and co-director of the Texas Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, diagnosed Paula with trigeminal neuralgia. Dr. Tandon explained the condition: “Imagine touching your face and it feels like pain, or the AC blowing on your face feeling like a very sharp, stabbing pain,” he said. “The pain is excruciating. Imagine a relentless abscess in a tooth that you cannot get rid of.”
Trigeminal neuralgia is caused when blood vessels press against a nerve in the brain. It most often affects people over 50 years old. According to Dr. Tandon: “The collision results in compression of the nerve with each heartbeat. Each time the vessel and the brain move from each heartbeat, it bangs into the nerve. The upshot is the nerve senses any normal sensation as pain.”
Having tried multiple medications without success and being an active yoga instructor, Paula was identified as a good candidate for microvascular decompression surgery—a procedure where material is inserted between an artery and nerve to prevent contact.
Dr. Tandon has performed more than 100 such surgeries and reports that about 85% of patients experience no pain after the procedure.
Following her December 2024 surgery at UTHealth Houston, Paula returned to work as an academic advisor and yoga instructor. She reports no longer experiencing debilitating pain during everyday activities such as reading or watching TV.
“Dr. Tandon took my pain away. My quality of life is fantastic. It’s wonderful,” Paula said. “I’m so excited I did that. And I got the perfect doctor to do it as well.”
