title: Facial pain radiating upwards: could the pain of epicrania fugax start in the lower face?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Epicrania fugax (EF) is characterized by painful paroxysms starting in a particular area of the head, and rapidly radiating forwards or backwards through the territories of different nerves. In former clinical descriptions, the pain moved between the posterior scalp (C2) and the frontal or periorbital area (V1), either in forward or backward direction.
  
  
  METHODS
  We report 5 patients with a paroxysmal EF-type pain starting in the lower face (V2 or V3) and radiating upwards.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In each patient, the pain stemmed from the cheek (n = 1), the upper lip (n = 2) or the chin and mandibular area (n = 2), and then moved up to the forehead or the scalp with linear trajectory. Pain intensity was moderate (n = 1) or severe (n = 4), and pain quality was stabbing (n = 2) or electric (n = 3). The duration of attacks was very brief, lasting 1 to a few seconds. Three patients had ocular or nasal autonomic accompaniments, and 3 had triggers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There seems to be a facial variant of EF. These observations could not only expand the clinical spectrum of EF but also enlarge the differential diagnosis of facial pain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain.|Department of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: María-Luz
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Cuadrado
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Ángel
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Aledo-Serrano
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Justino
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Almonacid
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Lera
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: Ángel L
authors.initials: ÁL
authors.lastname: Guerrero
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*
keywords: epicrania fugax; facial pain; painful cranial neuropathy; primary headache; trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia; trigeminal neuralgia