Paroxysmal hemicrania in children--symptoms, diagnostic criteria, therapy and outcome.
Whereas paroxysmal hemicrania (PH) is studied extensively in adults, even case reports of PH in children are rare. We present the first prospective follow-up study on PH in children. Our aim was to investigate whether differences exist between paediatric and adult patients. We assessed all children with chronic headache who were referred to our paediatric out-patient pain clinic within 3 years based on interviews and validated questionnaires. Among 628 patients we found five children with PH (0.8%) and three with probable PH (0.5%), in total 1.3%. Pain characteristics, autonomic symptoms and treatment response to indomethacin were similar to adult PH patients. Our results demonstrate that the International Headache Society classification of PH is also applicable to children. We suspect that PH has been underdiagnosed in children and therefore suboptimally treated thus far.
Blankenburg
M
M
Vodafone Foundation Institute for Children's Pain Therapy and Paediatric Palliative Care (VIKP), Clinic for Children and Adolescents Datteln, University Witten/Herdecke, Datteln, Germany. m.blankenburg@kinderklinik-datteln.de
Hechler
T
T
Dubbel
G
G
Wamsler
C
C
Zernikow
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D051302:Paroxysmal Hemicrania / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
D000700:Analgesics