TODAY, glossopharyngeal neuralgia is recognized as a major type of paroxysmal pain involving the distribution of the ninth cranial nerve. This has not always been so. For many years it was mistaken for trigeminal neuralgia, although the pain was not relieved by a partial or complete division of the posterior root of the gasserian ganglion.
The course of the glossopharyngeal nerve was described by Galen1 and the nerve separated as a distinct entity by Fallopius, but the actual functions were unknown until recent years. In 1910, Weisenburg2 described the symptoms of glossopharyngeal neuralgia due, in his case, to a tumor in the cerebellopontile angle pressing on the ninth nerve as shown at autopsy. Sicard and Robineau3 in 1920 described true glossopharyngeal neuralgia but were not certain of its purely ninth nerve origin. Doyle4 and Adson,5 of the Mayo Clinic, were the first to report cases