Favourable prognosis of trigeminal neuralgia when enrolled in a multidisciplinary management program - a two-year prospective real-life study

Table 3 Barrow Neurological Institute pain intensity score at baseline and at two-year assessment

Score	Pain description	Initial assessment N (%)	Two-year assessment N (%)	Median change of BNI	p-value^#
BNI 0	No medication needed at the time of assessment	16 (16) *	29 (28) **	0	0.25
BNI I	Very good effect: No pain	17 (17)	28 (27)	0	0.30
BNI II	Good effect: occasional pain that does not, or only occasionally, reduce my quality of life	20 (19)	28 (27)	- 1	0.078
BNI III	Limited effect: Daily pain with a moderate reduction of my quality of life	35 (34)	13 (13)	- 1	< 0.001
BNI IV	Insufficient effect: Daily episodes with severe pain which significantly reduce my quality of life	15 (15)	5 (5)	−2	< 0.001

N = 103. BNI = Barrow Neurological Institute pain intensity score. ^# Wilcoxon Signed Rank test. *Two patients were in remission (no pain) while 18 were reporting pain on the VNRS (not pain-free). ** Nineteen patients were in remission (no pain) while 10 were reporting pain on the VNRS (not pain-free). Thirty-seven patients (36%) reported unchanged BNI level, while 14 (14%) patients had a worsening in BNI over the two-year follow-up period. P < 0.05 was considered significant

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