Implantable Devices Are Not A Panacea, But The Ability To Relieve Migraine Attacks

Implantable Devices Are Not A Panacea, But The Ability To Relieve Migraine Attacks.
An implantable legend cryptic in the nape of the neck may represent more headache-free days for people with severe migraines that don't respond to other treatments, a supplementary study suggests. More than 36 million Americans get migraine headaches, which are marked by earnest pain, sensitivity to light and sound, nausea and vomiting, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. Medication and lifestyle changes are the first-line treatments for migraine, but not everybody improves with these measures.

The St Jude Medical Genesis neurostimulator is a short, worthless strip that is implanted behind the neck. A battery amassment is then implanted elsewhere in the body. Activating the device stimulates the occipital nerve and can hazy the pain of migraine headache. "There are a large number of patients for whom nothing works and whose lives are ruined by the always pain of their migraine headache, and this device has the potential to help some of them," said reflect on author Dr Stephen D Silberstein, director of the Jefferson Headache Center in Philadelphia.

The study, which was funded by mechanism manufacturer St Jude Medical Inc, is slated for giving on Thursday at the International Headache Congress in Berlin, and is the largest study to date on the device. The players is now seeking approval for the device in Europe and then plans to submit their data to the US Food and Drug Administration for green light in the United States.

Researchers tested the new device in 157 grass roots who had severe migraines about 26 days out of each month. After 12 weeks, those who received the untrained device had seven more headache-free days per month, compared to one more headache-free day per month seen to each people in the control group.

Individuals in the control arm did not receive stimulation until after the in front 12 weeks. Study participants who received the stimulator also reported less severe headaches and improvements in their blue blood of life. After one year, 66 percent of people in the study said they had noteworthy or good pain relief.

The pain reduction seen in the study did fall short of FDA standards, which hail for a 50 percent reduction in pain. "The device is invisible to the eye, but not to the touch," said Silberstein. The implantation practice involves local anesthesia along with conscious sedation so you are awake, but not fully aware.

There may be some mollifying pain associated with this surgery, he said. Study co-author Dr Joel Saper, creator and director of Michigan Head Pain and Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor, and a associate of the advisory board for the Migraine Research Foundation, said this treatment could be an important option for some people with migraines.

And "There were numerous patients who did benefit in terms of sorrow control and quality of life," Saper said. "We don't have any universally effective therapies for migraine, so we don't ever contemplate everyone to have dramatic results, but for those few that it works in, it's life-changing".

But, he said, "it is surgical and there are risks to surgery, and there are unknowns such as how hunger the effects will last". Risks of the callow neurostimulation procedure may include infection and the device can sometimes dislodge.

Saper has not received any compensation from the gadget manufacturer. "Occipital nerve stimulation is a treatment of great promise for patients with intractable hardened migraine," said Dr Richard B Lipton, director of the Headache Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and a feed member of the Migraine Research Foundation.

He is not combined with the new study. "Eliminating a full week per month of headaches is a giant gain for chronic migraine sufferers and translates into big improvements in treatment satisfaction and prominence of life," he said. "This treatment will make a huge difference for millions of migraine sufferers with long-lived migraine".

The results do mirror what Lipton has seen in his practice. "This shows that the treatment can give persistent migraine sufferers their lives back".

Dr Robert Duarte, director of the Pain Center at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset, NY, said that the renewed gubbins should not be considered a first-line treatment for migraine, however. "You need to be evaluated by a headache specialist, and metamorphose sure all treatment options are tried before installing a stimulator, but it is an option and there is definitely prove that it works," he said.

Duarte is not affiliated with the new study. "It is not a cure, but a treatment option that can restrict frequency and intensity of headaches in some people," Duarte added citrate. Doctors can also do a trial run using an apparent stimulator to see if it will work before implanting the device, he said.