|
It was reported at the annual meeting of neurologists (The American
Academy of Neurology) that treating migraine headaches with occipital nerve block was effective. Occipital nerve block is a procedure where anesthetic agents (lidocaine and bupivacaine) are injected near the occipital nerve on the back of the head near the base of the skull on the side of
the migraine headache. Within five minutes after the nerve block, 60% of patients had mild or no headache and 75% of patients had mild or no light
sensitivity (photophobia). Allodynia (pain caused by a stimulus that normally does not produce pain, such as brushing your hair) also reduced quickly
after the nerve block. Over half of patients had no side effects. About 20% had pain at the injection site and about 20% experienced
dizziness. The investigators of the study concluded that greater occipital nerve blocks are safe and easy procedures that
can be performed in the office and show results more quickly than oral triptan medications. Another recent study focused on occipital nerve blocks using anesthetic agents plus a steroid medication.
There was no statistically significant additional benefit when steroids were added to the treatment.
The average duration
of benefit in these trials was about four days. About 20% of responders still had total migraine headache relief one week after the injection.
|
