Refractory primary and secondary headache disorders that dramatically responded to combined treatment of ultrasound-guided percutaneous suprazygomatic pterygopalatine ganglion blocks and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation: a case series.

Abstract

In 1981, Devoghel achieved an 85.6% success rate in treating patients with treatment-refractory cluster headaches with alcoholization of the pterygopalatine ganglion (PPG) via the percutaneous suprazygomatic approach. Devoghel's study led to the theory that interrupting the parasympathetic pathway by blocking its transduction at the PPG could prevent or treat symptoms related to primary headache disorders (PHDs). Furthermore, non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) has proven to treat PHDs and has been approved by national regulatory bodies to treat, among others, cluster headaches and migraines.In this case series, nine desperate patients who presented with 11 longstanding treatment-refractory primary headache disorders and epidural blood patch-resistant postdural puncture headache (PDPH) received ultrasound-guided percutaneous suprazygomatic pterygopalatine ganglion blocks (PPGB), and seven also received nVNS. The patients were randomly selected and were not part of a research study. They experienced dramatic, immediate, satisfactory, and apparently lasting symptom resolution (at the time of the writing of this report). The report provides the case descriptions, briefly reviews the trigeminovascular and neurogenic inflammatory theories of the pathophysiology, outlines aspects of these PPGB and nVNS interventions, and argues for adopting this treatment regime as a first-line or second-line treatment rather than desperate last-line treatment of PDPH and PHDs.

• Authors: Andre P Boezaart, Cameron R Smith, Yury Zasimovich, Rene Przkora, Sanjeev Kumar, Olga C Nin, Louis C Boezaart, Daniel Aj Botha, André Leonard, Miguel A Reina, Juan A Pareja
• Journal: Regional anesthesia and pain medicine (Reg Anesth Pain Med) (Nov 20 2023) ISSN: 1532-8651 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 37989499 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © American Society of Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. Published by BMJ.