Surgical Treatment of Migraines

Surgery could be your answer

Every year 30 million Americans suffer from continuous, severe migraines and this leads to an astonishing 13 billion dollars spent on headache treatments. People are desperate to get a cure that could at least improve their headache, or control their headaches, if permanent cure is not yet available.

People want to get rid of drugs that have aggravated the situation rather than cured it. Drugs meant for controlling migraine carry heavy side effects and if used excessively, they can become a cause for transform migraine; a migraine that has the nerve being numb and unresponsive to pills taken.

However, surgeons and migraine experts have come up with two important surgical methods that is thought to be able to control migraine headaches, and though they may not completely eliminate the pain, it does have a lasting effect. Before you go for surgical operations to cure migraines, understand the fact that it cannot guarantee you permanent cure of migraine. Headaches will occur, but with less frequency and with less intensity.
 

Surgical Decompression of Migraine Trigger Regions

Common trigger areas include the forehead, the nasal region, the area behind the eyes and also the backside of the head/neck. Surgical treatments now focus on eliminating trigger area nerves that causes the migraine in severe sufferers. For people suffering from migraine with the forehead or the backside of the head being the main trigger areas, Botox is injected to determine which muscle is causing the pain. Once the muscles are identified they are surgically decompressed. Plastic surgeons serendipitously discovered certain procedures performed for cosmetic reasons had a secondary effect of relieving migraines.  This lead to years of clinical research and published articles providing evidence that surgical treatment of migraines can be effective.

The  trigeminal nerve located in the temporal region of the forehead is decompressed if the migraine occurs at the temple area. For backside of the head/neck, sufferers’ also known as occipital migraine, a small muscle is removed and peripheral nerves in that region are decompressed. For migraines caused by areas behind the eyes, septoplasty may be considered. In this way any trigger area that causes migraine is successfully eliminated. Botox acts as a therapeutic and diagnostic tool  when evaluating migraine patients for surgery.
 

Placing Stimulators

This is also a new surgical method that has patients having a permanent neurostimulator surgically fitted at the trigger area or where the migraine tends to occur the most. This method has the doctor fixing the neurostimulator in the pain area and whenever there is a rising headache, the patient will switch on the stimulator and the headache goes away. The neurostimulator sends electrical waves to the nerves and that eases away the pain that is caused by the nerve. Initially patients may feel like electric current going through their head, but as they get used to this, they pain will also gradually ease off. Most neurostimulators block the path of pain.