The WSU Department of Neurological Surgery recently announced that Dr. Kenneth Casey, associate professor and chief of neurotrauma at Detroit Receiving Hospital, recently was appointed co-chairman of the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association. Trigeminal neuralgia, also called tic douloureux, is a chronic facial pain condition that is probably caused by a blood vessel pressing on the trigeminal nerve in the brain as it exits the brainstem.