Surgery could help migraine sufferers

Main Category: Headache / Migraine
Article Date: 18 Aug 2003 - 0:00 PDT

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Migraines affect, on average, one in ten people. However, surgery could provide relief for those who suffer from chronic migraines.

Doctors in the United States have said that the removal of muscles in the neck and forehead of patients who suffer from severe headaches can stop the pain.

The idea to operate on migraine sufferers was based on a theory that, in many cases, the headaches are caused by the trapping or pinching of nerves by certain muscles.

Operations were carried out a year ago on 100 patients. A year on, 90 patients have revealed that they experience less migraines or none at all.

Dr Bahman Guyuron from the Zeeba Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, developed this theory after injecting some of his patients with botox.

Botox is normally used for cosmetically reducing lines and wrinkles around the face. When injected it temporarily paralyses the muscle underneath the skin.

Since undergoing the proceedure, two patients who previously suffered regularly from migraines found that they experienced far fewer headaches.

Upon investigation, Dr Guyuron identified 314 people who had undergone botox injections. Of these 314 people, 39 stated that they had been regular sufferers of migraines. 31 of these people then went on to say that their headaches had ceased following the injection.

This prompted Dr Guyuron's trial to test the theory further. Each volunteer was a regular migraine sufferer, having on average 15 migraines each month.

Dr Guyuron's belief is that the occural of migraines is due to problems in one of four areas of the head. These being forehead, temple, the back of the neck or the nose. Sometimes more than one area can cause the problem.

Botox was then used to paralyse muscles in each of these possible problem areas, excluding the nose, over the space of three months.

For those patients still suffering from migraines, Dr Guyuron deduced that the problem was in the nose. Those patients then underwent surgery to straighten the bone in their nose that separates the nostrils.

The other patients underwent surgery to remove the muscle, which had been temporarily paralysed by botox.

One year on, Dr Guyuron has seen improvement in the vast majority of patients, about 90%.