Endoscopic forehead surgery for migraine therapy. Personal technique

Abstract

AIM: The aim of this study is to prove the therapeutic effectiveness of nerve decompression, performed endoscopically for frontal migraine and by open surgery for occipital migraine.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty patients were enrolled and underwent surgery for endoscopic resection of the glabellar muscle group, including the corrugator supercilii, depressor supercilii, and procerus muscles, while the occipital decompression was performed in open surgery through decompression of occipital nerves from occipital, semispinalis capitis, trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles. Every patient was diagnosed with: migraine without aura, chronic tensiontype headache and new daily persistent headache, refractory to medical management.

RESULTS: Analyzing the answers given by the patients to validated questionnaires, 9 referred alleviation of migraine symptoms (45%), 8 described elimination of their migraine headaches (40%) while 3 didn’t report any improvement.

DISCUSSION: Our data confirmed the results of previous studies, pointing out the effectiveness of trigeminal branches and occipital nerves (trigger points) decompression from the surrounding muscles. Moreover, our technique has the same results but it’s less invasive and has less collateral effects.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight migraine surgery as an effective treatment for patients with migraine headaches who do not tolerate or do not wish to continue medical interventions.