[Chronic paroxysmal hemicrania. A review based on personal cases]

Chronic paroxysmal Hemicrania (CPH) is a headache syndrome first described in 1974. Since then about 60 cases have been reported in the world literature. CPH is characterised by headache attacks occurring daily and always strictly unilaterally. The frequency of the attacks varies from 5 to 30 per 24 hours, the single attack having an usual length of 2 to 30 minutes. The prompt response to indomethacin is the decisive diagnostic criterion of this headache syndrome. The clinical picture, the treatment, some aspects of the pathogenesis and the differential diagnosis of CPH are described by means of case reports. To our knowledge these are the first four cases reported in West Germany.