Hole in heart – disappointing trial

The most recent trial to see if a surgical procedure could help migraine sufferers was…not quite the success that was hoped for.  Sort of.

The fact is that the hole in the heart closure, called the PFO closure procedure, so far hasn’t turned out to be the migraine cure-all.  The surgery did seem to decrease the "migraine load" on patients by 37% (migraine load refers to number of hours with headaches multiplied by number of headaches).  That’s great – except that other preventative treatments can do just as well or better.  So the question is, who’s going to want to go under the knife when they can get help without the surgery?

There are some good points, though.  First, maybe this will help someone that hasn’t been helped by anything else.  Second, more trials are needed.  There is something here that is helping us better understand where migraine comes from.  It may be that future trials will give more clues and better results.  It may be that certain types of migraine are affected more than others.

For more on the trial, check out the official NMT Medical’s MIST Study press release [link no longer available].