migraine surgery

11 February 2011

Dr. Guyuron’s Migraine Surgery, 5 Years Later

Back in June of 2005 we were talking about a surgery for migraine disease being pioneered by Dr. Bahman Guyuron. Dr. Guyuron has been involved in surgical procedures in the USA and Canada for many years, most notably in the area of plastic surgery. It was while he was doing plastic surgery that he discovered that some of his patients were finding relief from their migraine attacks.

So he tested a surgical technique to target some trigger areas for migraine. First, each patient is "tested" with botulinum toxin A (Botox). The Botox treatment confirms the target sites.

Then comes the main surgery. The surgery removes tiny bits of muscle or nerves in the head, to relieve the pressure on certain nerves, thus eliminating triggers in some people. Sometimes other minor procedures are used.

69 of Dr. Guyuron’s patients were followed up throughout the following five years. The results are looking good.

These are, of course, very good results. Now, it should be noted that only certain patients would be approved for this type of surgery. However, it is likely that most of these patients had tried many other things without success.

Also, 10 patients (out of 79) were removed from the study because they required further surgery (they’re not included in the above chart).

Usually, surgery is not recommended for migraine. You will try many of the other options available before you should even consider surgery. Dr. Guyuron himself looks for people who have at least two or three severe attacks each month that do not respond to medications.

The recovery time for this surgery is about two to three weeks. As with any surgery, there is some risk, but problems with procedures like this tend to be rare.

Incidentally, we recently talked about Dr. Guyuron for another reason. He’s the man behind Innovative Medical Equipment, the company that has developed the SootheAway Continuous Thermal Therapy Device.

Read more about Dr. Bahman Guyuron here. If you want to read more about this particular study, check out this article at WebMD – Cosmetic Surgery May Also Treat Migraines.

3 November 2005

Nasal cavities and migraine

James Discoveries & Stats 0

Here’s yet another surgery for migraine. Of course, surgery is generally a long long way from your first options when it comes to migraine. Still, it may be that this will be the solution for some of my readers in the future.

The study was done at Christ Hospital in Jersey City, USA. The improvement? Number of days with migraine attacks cut in half, and the attacks were less severe.

The surgery? A simple one, called endoscopic nasal surgery. Apparently some people have nasal cavities that press on each other. Why would this cause problems? Well, it could be that a migraine is triggered because the trigeminal nerve is stimulated. It may be that certain chemicals are released that are triggering symptoms.

Dr Andrew Dowson*, medical advisor of Migraine Action Association, believes that there may be a connection between nasal contact triggers and PFO triggers. “Conditions such as intranasal contact points and a hole in the heart probably generate added ‘neurological noise’,” he told BBC news.

Migraine muscle surgery

James Treatments 0

Surgery certainly isn’t the first thing to try to relieve migraine, or even the second or third. But for those who really have tried everything else and just can’t get relief, some types of surgery may be the way to go.

That was the situation Arlene from Cleveland was in. At 53, her symptoms just seemed to be getting worse, and medication did little more than take the “edge” off the pain. So, she went to Dr Bahman Guyuron, a professor of plastic surgery at Case Western Reserve University. He did an operation which involved removing tiny bits of muscle to relieve the stress on the nerves. Areas targeted include around the temples, forehead, neck and other parts of the face. Three years later, Arlene is almost migraine free – she’s gone from a few attacks a month to a few a year.

For more on Arlene, and Dr Guyuron’s particular brand of migraine surgery, check out this article from The Globe and Mail.