title: Cauterization of inferior nasal turbinate for idiopathic headache.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Idiopathic headache is a stressful complaint, whose treatment is not well established. Our study is an attempt to examine the relationship between idiopathic headache and inferior turbinate cauterization as a surgical treatment, and to explain the central physiological effect of cauterization.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-four patients, 15 females and 19 males complaining of idiopathic headache were treated by inferior turbinate cauterization. Cauterization of the inferior-medial aspect of the turbinate was carried out once under local anesthesia for few seconds. This study was performed between November 1993 and December 1996, a joint project of the Zarka Government Hospital, Zarka and Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than 82% of the patients showed significant improvement in the sense of decreased headache.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cautery of the nasal turbinate could be a novel method for treatment of idiopathic headache.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Zarka Hospital, Ministry of Health, Zarka, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Qasim A
authors.initials: QA
authors.lastname: Khader
authors.forename: Khader J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Abdul-Baqi
authors.forename: Abbas H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Mansour
authors.forename: Faisal I
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Mohammed
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004564:Electrocoagulation; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014420:Turbinates / Q000601:surgery*