Hemicrania continua and Temporomandibular Disorders Co-Presentation. Case Report

Abstract

Hemicrania continua is an uncommon headache disorder that requires complete response to indomethacin for its diagnosis, that becomes on most of the cases chronic pain resilient to treatment. On the other hand, temporomandibular pain is very common on the general population and happens to be undiagnosed most of the time when headache or migraines are happening at the same time. In this case we aim to highlight the importance of treating all concomitant diagnosis for a better long-term prognosis. In this paper, a case of a 51-year-old male with chronic resilient facial pain is presented. The patient described right sided facial pain with six years of evolution that started with no triggers. The pain was described as constant bilateral pressure being worse on the right side, located on the temples, masseteric and preauricular areas; with an intensity of 6 on a scale of 0 to 10. It is accompanied by episodes of paroxysmal pulsating hemifacial pain with autonomic symptoms (rhinorrhea, conjunctival injections and lacrimation). The pain during exacerbations was located on the right periorbital and hemifacial area and with an intensity of 10 on a scale of 0 to 10, lasting a few minutes to more than 2 hours. After the clinical examination and pain history, the patient was given the diagnosis of hemicrania continua and masticatory myofascial pain.  He was started on Indomethacin 25mg twice a day and started on temporomandibular therapy (self-care, jaw exercises, motivation and advice for stress management). Three months after the first evaluation the patient reported total resolution of his symptoms. The main goal of this article is to highlight that the presence of temporomandibular disorders is common in patients with headaches, for which it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive approach for both entities, which include the therapies for treating axis I diagnosis and behavioral management for axis II, this including most of the time a multidisciplinary human centered approach.