Medtronic Begins Study of Occipital Nerve Stimulation for Chronic, Refractory Migraine Headaches; Implanted Device Delivers Electrical Impulses to Occipital Nerves. Medtronic Begins Study of Occipital Nerve Stimulation for Chronic, Refractory Migraine Headaches; Implanted Device Delivers Electrical Impulses to Occipital Nerves
Medtronic, Inc. today announced the first patient implant in a preliminary study to evaluate if an implanted device might help some of the thousands of Americans who suffer the agony of chronic migraine headaches that have not responded to other treatments.
More on occipital nerve block: The current issue of journal Headache presents a report of two patients whose prolonged hemiplegic migraine aura resolved with greater occipital nerve block. It is hard to explain how blocking a nerve would stop this brain dysfunction, but Botox which we routinely use to treat migraines, also seems to affect brain processes through peripheral nerves. I might try occipital nerve block for my next patient with a prolonged aura, but only if an intravenous infusion of one gram of magnesium sulfate fails.
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