title: Surgical treatment of migraine headaches.
abstract: The senior author (BG) introduced the modern concept of migraine surgery in 2000. Since then, over 40 articles have been published by eight centers across the US, Europe, and Asia, describing positive outcomes after surgery in 68-95% of cases. Surgeons, neurologists, and patients are increasingly interested in this new treatment method. However, the majority of publications on this topic are found in surgical literature, with few articles presented in neurology journals. This review is an introduction to migraine surgery for neurologists from a surgeons view. It discusses the surgical treatment of migraine headaches based on the discoveries made and articles published by the senior author. It outlines the current history of migraine surgery, presents evidence supporting its effectiveness, and tries to dispel claims that what we are seeing is a placebo effect. It further describes detection of trigger sites and outlines surgical techniques of peripheral nerve decompression. We hope that this review will generate a positive discussion between surgeons and neurologists and lead to more interdisciplinary collaboration for the benefit of the patients in the future.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Combined Program for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gfrerer
authors.affiliation: Cleveland, Ohio From the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, 29,017 Cedar Road, Cleveland (Lyndhurst), OH, 44124, USA. bahman.guyuron@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Bahman
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guyuron
mesh_terms: D019299:Decompression, Surgical / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000601:surgery*; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Headache; Migraine; Migraine surgery; Migraine treatment; Migraine trigger sites; Nerve decompression