A minimally invasive migraine headache treatment, mainly used for migraine relief in adults, is also proving helpful in teenagers and children. It only takes few minutes for the child to feel complete relief, according to the latest research presented in February, 2017 at the Annual Scientific Meeting of Society of Interventional Radiology.
Migraine headaches are so common among adults and youth, effecting about 15 percent of people ages 10 and older. They can be very debilitating in children and often disrupt their daily activities, such as school, sports and music. The highly effective migraine treatment-SPG (shphnopalatine ganglion block)-does not involve use of any needles touching the patient. Instead, a small and flexible catheter is gently inserted into each of the nostril and doctor may administer local anesthetic to the SPG, a local nerve bundle that is thought to be responsible for various migraines, located right at the back of the nose.
With brief disability of the SPG, it is possible to disrupt and reset the headache circuit, breaking the cycle of head throbbing migraines and also reducing any need for medication. The minimally invasive treatment of SPG block shows immediate results with relief lasting potentially lasting for weeks or even months, researchers said. It’s not a frontline treatment, and child may only qualify for this therapy if he or she has been diagnosed with severe migraine that’s not treatable with common migraine medications.
“This migraine treatment is performed in an outpatient setting by a trained interventional radiologist, and can quickly and safely relieve child’s migraine quickly,” Said Ron Kaye, MD chief of interventional radiology at the department of medical imaging at Phoenix Children Hospital and also a co-author of the study. “This treatment reduces dependence on intravenous therapies and medications that come with many serious side effects, and may also require hospital stays, so children don’t have to miss as much school and can also get back to being a normal kid sooner,”
Ron and her team conducted 290 treatments in 240 patients, ages 6 to 19 at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Pain levels of patients were recorded on the scale of 1-10. Just fifteen minutes after this treatment, the patients were again asked to compare their pain level, using the same scale. The researchers found massive decrease in headache scores, with an average pain score reduction of just more than 3 points on the 10-point scale.
“While this may not be a permanent cure for migraine headaches, it definitely has a good potential to improve quality of life for so many children,” said Ron. “ It’s very easy to perform, without any complication, and also gives immediate pain relief, which is important for parents who want to see their children healthy, happy and pain free again. If necessary, we can also repeat this treatment if or when the migraine symptoms return.
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