Are more nerve injections in the same session more effective in migraine treatment? 3-month follow-up results.

Abstract

Background and purpose: Peripheral nerve blockade techniques have been developed for both acute and prophylactic treatment of migraine. Our aim was to compare pain parameters between the groups of patients who only had greater occipital nerve blockade (GON), and those who also had blockade to the supraorbital nerve (SON) and infraorbital nerve (ION) together with greater occipital nerve blockade, in order to reduce pain more effectively in migraine patients.

Methods: 50 patients diagnosed with migraine were included in our study. 22 patients underwent only bilateral GON blockade (GONB), and 28 patients underwent bila-teral GON blockade and bilateral SON and ION blocka-des (MCNB). In both groups, the number of headache days and visual analog scale scores of the patients were noted in the first month before the injection, in the first, second and third months after the injections (injections were applied to patients 3 times with one-month intervals).

Results: While the number of headache days before injection was 9.6 days/month in the GONB group and 9.3 days/month in the MCNB group, it was 6.2 days/month and 5.2 days/month after the first injection, 5.3 days/month and 3.8 days/month after the second injection, and 3.9 days/month and 2.8 days/month after the third injection, respectively (p < 0.01). While the visual analog scale scores of both groups were 8.1 before injection, it decreased to 5.9 and 6.0, respectively, after the third injection.

Conclusion: There was no significant difference in the reduction of pain parameters between only GON blockade and SON and ION blockades in addition to GON blockade.