Since glossopharyngeal neuralgia and trigeminal neuralgia have very similar symptoms and progression, careful history taking and physical examination are necessary in order to perform differential diagnosis. Although the situation is very rare, when a patient is having pain attacks due to trigeminal neuralgia and glossopharyngeal neuralgia simultaneously, pain caused by one kind of neuralgia can mask pain caused by the other form of neuralgia. In these cases, differential diagnosis of both types of neuralgia is very difficult. In this paper, we report our experience of such a case, in which blocking the trigeminal nerve allowed confirmation of glossopharyngeal neuralgia.

Keywordscoincidence, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia.