Treatment of Frontal Secondary Headache Attributed to Supratrochlear and Supraorbital Nerve Entrapment With Oral Medication or Botulinum Toxin Type A vs Endoscopic Decompression Surgery

Outcomes of Surgical Treatment of Migraines: A Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis

Background: Migraine surgery at 1 of 6 identified "trigger sites" of a target cranial sensory nerve has rapidly grown in popularity since 2000. This study summarizes the effect of migraine surgery on headache severity, headache frequency, and the migraine headache index score which is derived by multiplying migraine severity, frequency, and duration. Materials and Methods: This is a PRISMA-compliant systematic review of 5 databases searched from inception through May 2020 and is registered under the PROSPERO ID: CRD42020197085. Clinical trials treating headaches with surgery were included. Risk of bias was assessed in randomized controlled trials. Meta-analyses were performed on outcomes using a random effects model to determine the pooled mean change from baseline and when possible, to compare treatment to control. Results: 18 studies met criteria including 6 randomized controlled trials, 1 controlled clinical trial, and 11 uncontrolled clinical trials treated 1143 patients with pathologies including migraine, occipital migraine, frontal migraine, occipital nerve triggered headache, frontal headache, occipital neuralgia, and cervicogenic headache. Migraine surgery reduced headache frequency at 1 year postoperative by 13.0 days per month as compared to baseline (I2 = 0%), reduced headache severity at 8 weeks to 5 years postoperative by 4.16 points on a 0 to 10 scale as compared to baseline (I2 = 53%), and reduced migraine headache index at 1 to 5 years postoperative by 83.1 points as compared to baseline (I2 = 2%). These meta-analyses are limited by a small number of studies that could be analyzed, including studies with high risk of bias. Conclusion: Migraine surgery provided a clinically and statistically significant reduction in headache frequency, severity, and migraine headache index scores. Additional studies, including randomized controlled trials with low risk-of-bias should be performed to improve the precision of the outcome improvements.

Nonsurgical Treatment of Neuralgia and Cervicogenic Headache: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background:

Extracranial compression of peripheral sensory nerves is one of many origins of chronic headaches. Identifying these patients can be difficult, and they are often diagnosed with neuralgia or cervicogenic headache. The recent literature provides the outcomes of surgical decompression in patients with these headaches. This study aimed to give an overview of the current literature on the nonsurgical treatment options and to evaluate the effectiveness of these treatments in patients with neuralgia and cervicogenic headache.

Methods:

Databases were searched to identify all published clinical studies investigating nonsurgical treatment outcomes in patients with neuralgia or cervicogenic headaches. Studies that reported numerical pain scores, nonnumerical pain scores, headache-free days, or the number of adverse events after nonsurgical treatment were included.

Results:

A total of 22 articles were included in qualitative analysis. The majority of studies included patients who received injection therapy. Treatment with oral analgesics achieved good results in only 2.5% of the patients. Better outcomes were reported in patients who received local anesthetics injection (79%) and corticosteroid injection (87%). Treatment with botulinum toxin injection yielded the highest percentage of good results (97%; 95% CI, 0.81–1.00). The duration of headache relief after injection therapy varied from 30 minutes to 5 months.

Conclusions:

The nonsurgical treatment of patients with neuralgia or cervicogenic headache is challenging. Injection therapy in patients with these types of headaches achieved good pain relief but only for a limited time. Surgical decompression may result in long-lasting pain relief and might be a more sustainable treatment option.

Intra-arterial injection of lidocaine into middle meningeal artery to treat intractable headaches and severe migraine

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

We report the results of intra-arterial injection of lidocaine in the middle meningeal artery in patients with intractable headache or status migrainosus.

METHODS

We treated four patients with intra-arterial lidocaine (2 mg/ml) in doses up to 50 mg in each middle meningeal artery via a microcatheter bilaterally (except in one patient). In two patients with intractable headache, the daily maximum intensity of headache (graded by 11-point numeric rating scale) was recorded for 7 days postprocedure. In two patients with status migrainosus, migraine-related disability 3 months prior and after treatment using MIDAS (Migraine Disability Assessment) questionnaire was recorded.

RESULTS

Intra-arterial lidocaine reduced the headache intensity from 8/10 and 10/10 to 0/10 in the two patients with intractable headaches for 2 days (day 0 and day 1) postprocedure. Despite recurrence of headache on day 2, the intensity was less than preprocedure intensity up to the last day recorded (by 3 and 2 points on day 7). In the two patients with status migrainosus, there was immediate reduction in headache intensity following intra-arterial lidocaine. The post treatment 3-month MIDAS score was lower in both patients compared with pretreatment 3-month score; 3 versus 30 and 55 versus 90. Severe disability preprocedure by MIDAS was reduced to little or no disability postprocedure in one patient.

CONCLUSIONS

Intra-arterial lidocaine resulted in amelioration of headache in patients with intractable headache and those with status migrainosus with improvement lasting longer than the short half-life of lidocaine possibly related to central desensitization.

Decompression Surgery for Frontal Migraine Headache

INTRODUCTION

Migraine headache (MH) is one of the most common diseases worldwide and pharmaceutical treatment is considered the gold standard. Nevertheless, one-third of patients suffering from migraine headaches are unresponsive to medical management and meet the criteria for "refractory migraines" classification. Surgical treatment of MH might represent a supplementary alternative for this category of patients when pharmaceutical treatment does not allow for satisfactory results. The goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature regarding surgical treatment for site I migraine management.

METHODS

A literature search using PubMed, Medline, Cochrane and Google Scholar database according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines was conducted using the following MeSH terms: "frontal neuralgia," "frontal trigger site treatment," "frontal migraine surgery" and "frontal headache surgery" (period: 2000 -2020; last search on 12 March 2020).

RESULTS

Eighteen studies published between 2000 and 2019, with a total of 628 patients, were considered eligible. Between 68% and 93% of patients obtained satisfactory postoperative results. Complete migraine elimination rate ranged from 28.3% to 59%, and significant improvement (>50% reduction) rates varied from 26.5% to 60%.

CONCLUSIONS

Our systematic review of the literature suggests that frontal trigger site nerve decompression could possibly be an effective strategy to treat migraine refractory patients, providing significant improvement of symptoms in a considerable percentage of patients.