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Published on: September 13, 2024
Decompression Surgery for Frontal Migraine Headache
Maria Lucia Mangialardi1, Ilaria Baldelli2, Marzia Salgarello1
1Istituto di Clinica Chirurgica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore e Unità di Chirurgia Plastica, Dipartimento Scienze della Salute della Donna e del Bambino, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Largo Francesco Vito 1, 00168 Rome, Italy.
Introduction:
Migraine headache (MH) is one of the most common diseases worldwide and pharmaceutical treatment is considered the gold standard. Nevertheless, one-third of patients suffering from migraine headaches are unresponsive to medical management and meet the criteria for "refractory migraines" classification. Surgical treatment of MH might represent a supplementary alternative for this category of patients when pharmaceutical treatment does not allow for satisfactory results. The goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature regarding surgical treatment for site I migraine management.
Methods:
A literature search using PubMed, Medline, Cochrane and Google Scholar database according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines was conducted using the following MeSH terms: "frontal neuralgia," "frontal trigger site treatment," "frontal migraine surgery" and "frontal headache surgery" (period: 2000 -2020; last search on 12 March 2020).
Results:
Eighteen studies published between 2000 and 2019, with a total of 628 patients, were considered eligible. Between 68% and 93% of patients obtained satisfactory postoperative results. Complete migraine elimination rate ranged from 28.3% to 59%, and significant improvement (>50% reduction) rates varied from 26.5% to 60%.
Conclusions:
Our systematic review of the literature suggests that frontal trigger site nerve decompression could possibly be an effective strategy to treat migraine refractory patients, providing significant improvement of symptoms in a considerable percentage of patients.
