Bilateral GONB was not superior to unilateral GONB in
reducing the frequency,
severity and duration of headache in migraine patients after 3 months of
treatment.
Migraine is counted among the most prevalent primary
headache worldwide. Around 2% of the world population is known to suffer from
chronic migraine problem. Various treatments are used to treat these chronic
primary headaches. One of such is greater occipital nerve (GON) block
treatment. However, its unilateral and bilateral block application in a chronic
migraine is not well studied. Therefore, scientists conducted a study to
evaluate this treatment effectiveness among migraine patients and whether there
is any difference in bilateral and unilateral nerve block or not.
A total of 41 patients involved in the study, out of which 18 received
bilateral nerve block treatment, and another left 23 patients received
unilateral block treatment. These patients went through one block for the first
month and after that one block per month according to GON block protocol.
During the study, patient number underwent GON block treatment, mean days of
pain per month before and after surgery, mean Visual Analog Scale (VAS) in the
attack, mean duration (in hours) of pain during attacks and pain severity were
checked out.
Both groups in 2 and three months showed a decrease in the number of days with
a migraine significantly as compared to pre-block treatment (P<0.001). The
patients who went under the bilateral block showed a significant decrease in
the mean duration of a headache whereas another group exhibited a reduction but
did not differ significantly. On the other hand, patients with unilateral block
treatment showed a significant reduction in mean severity during 2 and three
months as compared to pre-block therapy. However, no difference was seen during
the 3-month treatment period in regards to headache duration, frequency and
severity. This whole study reflected the results that GON block manage a
chronic condition of a migraine very efficiently and unilateral block treatment
is superior to bilateral treatment.
Neurological Sciences
Do bilateral and unilateral greater occipital nerve block effectiveness differ in chronic migraine patients?
Hanzade Aybüke Ünal-Artık et al.
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