I have VES on left side, symptoms are mainly facial nerve pain and pressure at the front of my head. I’m in Canada and with no surgical options I opted for Dr. Cognetti’s surgery in August since he gives a good rate to Canadians (less than 10k). He said he had a neurosurgeon look at my images and they both felt c1 was not playing a big role, and that styloid removal should be sufficient.
Do you think facial nerve pain is from the IJV compression or styloid hitting nerve on one or both sides?!
With few options at this time and what Dr. Cognetti has said re: C1 I should be hopeful about some symptom resolution?
I never heard about IJV causing nerve pain.
It’s most likely styloid pressing on the nerves which is pretty common in ES.
When it comes to pressure in the head, it could be related to IJV compression.
Glad that you already have doctors who will preform the surgery
There are two nerves that cause pain in the face when they are irritated by elongated styloids - Facial & Trigeminal. The TN can also cause pressure at the front of your head & can cause terrible headaches as well. The images below will help you to see the areas in the face they cover. Many of our members have had facial pain/pressure that resolved once their styloids were removed.
I agree that the facial nerve is one of the nerves commonly affected by the styloids; we have had some members with interesting anatomy, and during surgery it’s been found the styloids are quite tangled with nerves and blood vessels, I guess it could feasibly be possible for the IJV to maybe be close to the facial nerve, but it is more likely to be due to the styloids…
I had bilateral IJV compression from the styloids & no C1 involvement, the surgery made a huge difference to the vascular symptoms, I felt massively better after the first surgery, I hope it helps you the same
