The complete mechanism of Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) development is still not fully understood, knowing that several different factors can cause this disease. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an auxiliary tool to determine the possible cause. This paper reviews the architecture of the trigeminal nerve that is important to TN, describes the imaging appearance of vascular compression of the trigeminal nerve in TN patients, and discusses the relationship between these findings and the causative TN branch. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) criteria, this systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out. The query set that was utilised was (neurovascular conflict) AND (trigeminal nerve) AND (neuralgia). The databases Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, ResearchGate, and PubMed/MEDLINE were utilised. The primary database search yielded 3886 articles; after applying search criteria, 4 articles were selected for the study. The methodological indicator of non-randomized studies - MINORS was used. The most common branches involved in the TN were a combination of second and third branches (55.6%). The overall difference was statistically insignificant when comparing the second and third trigeminal nerve branches with the most common neurovascular conflict vessels. MRI is the most used diagnostic tool for evaluating NVC in TN. The analyzed studies present the most frequent involvement of vertebral artery or superior cerebellar artery vessels in the NVC. Further large sample size studies are needed to develop a map (algorithm) that can easily identify the contacting vessel in the presence of branch TN.
