As for side effects, one surgery patient had persistent numbness of the forehead, and 10 of 19 patients who had the procedure on the side of the head had a slight but persistent hollowing in their temple region.
More than 30 million Americans experience migraine headaches. However, Robert Kunkel, MD, a consultant at the department of neurology at the Cleveland Clinic, says this surgery probably won’t become a common procedure, despite the results.
“This may be a technique that will help a small number of migraine patients who have responded to Botox, but it’s certainly not a procedure for generally treating migraines,” says Dr. Kunkel, who was not involved in the new study. He points out that people who had the sham surgery probably suspected that they were in the placebo group, since the face-lift would most likely have reduced wrinkling. If a treatment isn’t completely blinded, it can skew a study’s results; if patients suspect they’ve had a sham treatment, they may be less likely to say their migraines are cured.
However, nearly 60% of the people who had the sham procedure reported some migraine relief too. Dr. Guyuron believes this could be related to a placebo effect, or the incisions could have disturbed some of the nerve branches and actually relieved migraines in some way.
Overall, there was a 92% success rate, notes Dr. Guyuron. “This study offers powerful evidence to the plastic surgeon, the neurologist, and the insurance companies that this operation is effective,” he says. “Not only are they headache free, depending on the trigger site, but they also may look younger.”
The Migraine Foundation, the Plastic Surgery Education Fund, and the Prentiss Foundation funded this study. Some of the study coauthors have consulted for Allergan or have been paid speakers for pharmaceutical companies.
Comments (4)
I am having this very surgery at this month’s end with this doctor in Cleveland, Ohio . I have suffered greatly from migraine for close to 21 years-and the brain disorder has had a depressing and devastating impact on my life.
Intersting information. i was recently reading about facelift in immersivemedical.com and was thikning of doing this procedure..
As someone who has suffered from chronic daily migraines from more than 15 years, I cannot deprive someone of the hope of improving their daily condition and I am sure that had someone told me this before my surgery I would have gone ahead anyaway, HOWEVER, just to let you know what can happen if you are not one of the lucky ones- you can make it much, much worse. I didn’t think it could get much worse than it was before the surgery, so I went ahead feeling that I had nothing to lose and my doctor had an 80 something percent success rate. I am now 2 years post surgery and I still am so tender that I cannot sleep lying down with pressure on the back of my head, I sleep in a sort of propped up position so that I do not have to put any weight on the back or top of my head. We have to try everything out there to find relief, but make sure you ask lots of questions- for example, what have patients experienced when the surgery is not considered successful.
Good luck!!!!
I have suffered from Migraines for years now, so I have plntey experience on this matter. (Too much if you ask me.) Taking three tablets of your Excedrine won’t hurt. I’ve for years taken OTCs (over the counter) Medication to alieviate my Migraines, but unfortuanatly, they don’t work on me. I would suggest that you go to your doctor, who might want to run some tests, MRI or Cat Scan to eliminate any other problem that might be causing your Migraines to occur. He can also perscribe you medication that can totally alieviate you pain. That is if Triptans will work for you. Right now I take Imitrex, it’s a Migraine medication, and I can tell you from experience that for me, this is the only medication I have found that worked. Usually within 30 to an hour my migraine is gone. It is wonderful. The only slight problem with these drugs is their cost which I am sorry to say is expensive. I talked to my doctor about this, and luckly for me, he is nice enough to give me free samples of this medication every few months. Otherwise I couldn’t afford it. I hope I helped you. Here is a good site to go to, it is a forum for people like you and me that suffer from constant headache/migraine pain.=GOOD LUCK TO YOU.