Ophthalmoplegic migraine: inflammatory neuropathy with secondary migraine?

This critical review provides a summary of the clinical presentation, neuroimaging, treatment and prognosis in pediatric ophthalmoplegic migraine (OM). The features of OM are not in keeping with its classification as a migraine-variant.

We review 3 new and 37 reported pediatric OM cases.

Headache was an inconsistent feature, with 25% patients showing no evidence of pain at the initial OM episode. Patients demonstrated: 1) prolonged time for symptom resolution to occur (median time 3 weeks); 2) tendency for recurrent episodes to have more severe and persistent nerve involvement; 3) evidence of permanent neurological sequelae with recurrent episodes (30% of patients); 4) rapid improvement and shortened duration with corticosteroid therapy and; 5) transient, reversible MRI contrast enhancement of the affected cranial nerve (86% of patients). These features would not be expected in primary migraine headache.

A detailed understanding of the natural history of OM is essential for the clinical. This review provides support that OM may result from cranial nerve inflammation with headache a secondary and later feature of this condition.