Few cases have been reported since the origin report by Clark and Taylor in 1909. Jannetta described such a finding and the beneficial results produced by moving the offending vessel. The patient complains of intermittent stabbing pain, like electric shock, deep in the ear. The pain can be triggered by non-noxious stimulation of the ear canal or can follow swallowing or talking. The patient is pain free between attacks.
Neurologic deficits are absent.
The syndrome is always unilateral. Rarely, patients with pain in the trigeminal distribution also have pain in the nervus intermedius territory. Diagnosis Geniculate neuralgia can also be caused by herpes zoster. The patient with geniculate neuralgia usually has vesicular eruption on the eardrum and external canal that follows the onset of the pain by 1 or 2 days. The pain is constant and burning and can be readily discriminated from the intermittent stabbing pain of nervus intermedius tic.