Posts Tagged ‘Migraines’
Plastic Surgery 2009 – Pulling the Trigger on Migraines: Have We Found a Cure?
For some patients, both the needle and knife appear to be effective medical tools for quelling the suffering from migraine headaches. The disability from migraine headaches is an enormous health burden affecting over 30 million Americans. In a five year study, presented at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) Plastic Surgery 2009 conference, Oct. 23-27, in Seattle, doctors first injected 100 migraine sufferers with botulinum toxin A to help identify the muscle groups that were triggering the headaches. Patients who reported improvement in their migraines lasting at least four weeks after the injection (89 patients), had surgery to deactivate the muscle groups or “trigger sites.” Since the surgery, 79 of the patients have been followed for five years. Of those, the outcome has been promising. Ninety percent (71 patients) have maintained the initial positive response to the surgery. Twenty-eight percent (22 patients) had elimination of migraines entirely, 62 percent (49 patients) noticed a significant decrease, and only 10 percent (8 patients) experienced no change. This 5-year data provides strong evidence that surgical manipulation of one or more migraine trigger sites can successfully eliminate (cure) or reduce the frequency, duration, and/or intensity of migraine headaches.
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