Diagnosis and treatment of neurovascular origin headache

  Migraine and cluster headache are both of neurovascular origin.  Clinical manifestations of headache: Cluster headache: located unilaterally in the orbit, felt deep in and around the eye, usually intense and non-pulsatile, often radiating to the forehead, temporal region and cheeks, rarely to the ear, occipital region and neck. This headache tends to recur between 1-2 hours after the onset of sleep or several times in 24 hours without aura or vomiting. The attacks occur at the same time each day, and this pattern can last for 6-12 weeks, followed by months or even years without attacks (hence the term cluster). The accompanying symptoms are nasal congestion, runny nose, conjunctival congestion, tearing, narrow pupils and flushed cheeks, lasting an average of 45 minutes (from 15-180 minutes).  Migraine: The headache begins as a dull pain in the supraorbital, retroorbital or frontotemporal area on one side, grows in intensity with a throbbing nature, and then persists as a severe fixed pain that extends to the entire half of the head and even to the upper neck. If left untreated, it usually lasts for 72 hours. The patient is pale, often with nausea and vomiting, and the headache usually lasts all day, often terminated by sleep. The headache is often preceded by prodromal symptoms and is mostly bilateral, usually with onset in adolescence and most often with a family history. Some patients have an attack aura, and in some patients odor can trigger a pain attack.  Medical examination Exclude organic lesions by blood, urine routine, electrolytes and cerebrospinal fluid examination. Cranial CT or MRI examination is important for differential diagnosis.  Hazards: Headache seriously interferes with the normal life and work of human beings. Although the incidence of migraine patients may decrease with age, studies on foreign data show that the attacks of these two types of headaches are related to intracranial autonomic nerve dysfunction, and some studies show that migraine patients are prone to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, so it is necessary to treat headaches actively.  Pain management Many headache patients take painkillers or lose their ability to work in severe cases. General treatment is mostly given to oral medication, which costs a lot of money, or acupuncture and massage treatment.  Since cluster headache is a neurovascular headache, and modern medicine believes that neurovascular headache is related to the dysfunction of the largest autonomic ganglion in the skull, the pain department provides special treatment: minimally invasive neurointerventional analgesia. So far, we have been able to free many patients from the nightmare of headache by this method, and have received immediate results, with very satisfactory results in the long term follow-up.