Abstract:Objective To explore the efficacy of gabapentin combined with botulinum toxin type A in the treatment of recurrent trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and its effects on neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and S100β.Methods A total of 110 patients with recurrent TN admitted to our hospital from January 2018 to August 2020 were selected and divided into the test group and the control group, with 55 cases in each group. The patients in the control group were treated with gabapentin. On the basis of the gabapentin, the test group was additionally given botulinum toxin type A. The therapeutic efficacy, serum levels of NSE and S100β, and adverse reactions of the two groups were compared.Results The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores at rest before the treatment, 2 weeks after the treatment and 8 weeks after the treatment were compared between the two groups, and the repeated-measures analysis of variance demonstrated that the VAS scores were different among the time points (F = 9.046, P < 0.05) and between the test group and the control group (F = 7.097, P < 0.05). Specifically, the VAS scores of the test group were lower and indicated better analgesic effects compared with the control group. The change trends of the VAS scores were also different between the test group and the control group (P < 0.05). The overall effective rate in the test group was higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The differences of the serum levels of S100β and NSE before and after the treatment in the test group were higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the overall incidence of adverse drug reactions between the two groups (P > 0.05).Conclusions Gabapentin combined with botulinum toxin type A enhances the efficacy in the treatment of recurrent TN. It reduces the levels of S100β and NSE, and has fewer safety concerns.