Differential diagnosis of occipital neuralgia

Occipital neuralgia is mainly differentiated from migraine. Migraine is also called vascular neuropathic headache, in which the blood vessels pulsate or have a sensation of pulsating blood vessels, and the pain is more intense. Occipital neuralgia is an electric shock-like pain, which is not afraid to touch the local area, and when the local area is slightly touched, there will be an electric shock-like sensation and it is like an electric shock-like pain. Migraine is usually on one side of the patient’s head, and the pain site varies according to the occipital major, occipital minor, and auricular major nerves depending on the anatomical site, and rarely two occipital major and occipital minor have pain at the same time. According to the nature of pain, pain location, and pain accompanying symptoms, it can be identified. Treatment in Chinese medicine is based on local treatment and overall treatment in conjunction with each other. The local treatment of vascular neuropathic headache and occipital neuralgia is the same, using pressure pain point therapy. The common people know that if it passes, it does not hurt, and if it does not hurt, it passes. For the overall treatment of vascular headache, most TCM practitioners believe that hyperactivity of liver and yang is the cause, so the treatment is based on the method of pacifying the liver and promoting yang and activating the meridians, and the treatment is based on the acupuncture points of liver meridian, Taichong, large intestine meridian, Hegu and Quchi. According to the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, all pains and itchy sores belong to the heart, so we adopt the method of dispelling the heart fire by finding the stagnant channels in the heart meridian circulation, which can be treated by local puncture and bloodletting, and by using local acupuncture points and five acupuncture points to dispel the heart fire.