MRI Specialist Cluster Headache Treatment Centers
The most painful type of headache is known as cluster headache. Approximately 10-20% of cases do not respond to any kind of medication. This study looks at a new surgical procedure that stimulates parts of the brain stem, deep inside the brain. The researchers used a medical device called a neurostimulator. The device is placed in the brain and sends electrical signals to specific target areas of cluster headache sufferers.
46 patients were studied at European centers and 8 were studied at the University of California. Many of these patients reported an improvement in cluster headaches. The discovery of this headache treatment method occurred when brain scans had shown the amount of blood flow in the brain after patients were given a heart disease medication called “nitroglycerine” that causes migraine headaches.
Stimulating the nerve at the back of the neck has also given positive results. This article gives a review of the symptoms, techniques and results of stimulating the brain in patients with cluster headache.
View the original brain stimulation for cluster headache article at this link: Can stimulating the brain treat cluster headaches?
” Important questions remain to be answered, including evaluation of the role of occipital nerve stimulation prior to DBS, a determination of the proportion of patients who respond to this therapy in blinded studies, measurement of wash-in and wash-out times, pre-operative predictors of clinical success, risks of hemorrhage and stimulation induced adverse effects, optimal location of the active contact, and mechanism of action.”
