Trigeminal ganglion

Looks like

The crescent-shaped sensory ganglion of the trigeminal nerve, lying in a pocket of dura (Meckel's cave) on the tip of the petrous temporal bone; the three divisions leave from its front edge.

What it does

Holds the cell bodies of the nerve fibres that carry touch, pain and temperature from the face, eyes, nose, mouth and teeth.

Keeping it well

Shingles can reawaken from here, most dangerously in the eye's division. Trigeminal neuralgia — electric-shock face pain — is often a vessel pressing on the nerve root; carbamazepine, then surgery, relieve it.

Related conditions

• Amyloidosis (AL and ATTR)
• Botulism
• Chickenpox (varicella)
• Chronic neuropathic pain
• Chronic pain syndrome
• Cluster headache
• Cold sores (herpes simplex)
• Fibromyalgia
• Guillain-Barré syndrome
• Lyme disease
• Migraine
• Myasthenia gravis
• Peripheral neuropathy
• Rabies
• Restless legs syndrome
• Shingles (herpes zoster)
• Tetanus
• Trigeminal neuralgia
• Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies