Migraine Headaches
What is a Migraine Headache?
A migraine is a severe headache that typically affects one side of the head and can be accompanied by intense throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation. Other symptoms can include nausea and vomiting, numbness, chills, and sensitivity to light or sound. According to the American Migraine Foundation, more than 39 million Americans suffer from migraines. At Kansas Pain Management, we understand that the pain associated with a migraine can be debilitating and prevent you from living your life.
What are the Types of Headaches?
There are over 200 different types of headaches that are divided into two main categories: primary headache and secondary headache. A primary headache is one that develops on its own and not as a result of another health problem. The most common types of primary headache include tension-type headache, migraines, and cluster headaches. A secondary headache is one that results from another health problem.
What are the Types of Migraines?
Migraines are characterized by the associated symptoms. This includes migraines with or without aura (sensory disturbances), ocular migraines (temporary visual field loss), hemiplegic migraine (temporary muscle paralysis) and more. Chronic migraines are diagnosed by headaches occurring 15 days or more per month for three or more months, with migraine-like features on at least eight days a month.
Migraine without Aura
Migraine without aura is also known as ‘common migraine’, and is the most common type of migraine. An attack of migraine without aura typically last four hours to three days.
Migraine with Aura
A migraine with aura is also known as a ‘classic migraine’, and develops after or alongside sensory disturbances known as auras. Flashes of light, blind patches, and other vision alterations as well as tingling in your hand or face can be among these disruptions.
Retinal Migraine
Retinal migraines are also known as ocular migraines. Retinal migraines can cause one eye to have brief spells of blindness or vision issues like flashing light that typically last less than an hour.
Migraine With Brainstem Aura
A migraine with brainstem aura is a rare type of migraine that is accompanied by symptoms such as vertigo, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), double-vision (diplopia), unsteady gait (ataxia), or increased sensitivity to loud sounds (hyperacusis).
Status Migrainosus
Status migrainosus refers to a debilitating migraine that continues for more than 72 hours.
How are Migraines Diagnosed?
A healthcare practitioner must recognize a pattern of recurrent headaches, the accompanying symptoms, and the medical and family history in order to make an accurate diagnosis.
Conditions
Treatments
What Triggers a Migraine?
Hormonal Changes: Female patients tend to have migraines more frequently right before and right after their menstrual periods.
Food and Drinks: Excessive alcohol or caffeine consumption can often trigger a migraine, as well as skipping meals and being dehydrated.
Irregular sleeping Patterns: For some patients, not sleeping enough or sleeping too much can trigger a migraine as well.
Weather changes: A migraine may be caused by a change in the weather or barometric pressure.
Migraine Treatment
Treatment of migraine headaches begins conservatively with lifestyle modification and medication management. If the migraines persist despite conservative management, a patient may then be a candidate for interventional procedures such as the following:
Botox
If you experience migraine attacks that last 15 days or longer each month then there are high chances that your doctor might recommend Botox as a treatment because botox reduces the neurotransmitters that carry pain signals from the brain.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an important part of traditional Chinese medicine and is most frequently used to treat pain. During acupuncture, very small needles are inserted under the skin at specific bodily locations.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a process that can help you learn to control some of your body’s functions, like your heart rate. During biofeedback, You are connected to electrical sensors that allow you to receive information about your body.
Injectable Medications
Kansas Pain Management provides a range of injectable headache treatments, such as epidural, facet joint, radiofrequency ablation, and trigger point injections.
Nerve Blocks
Kansas Pain Management provides distinctive headache treatments known as nerve block therapies for its patients, where a numbing agent is carefully injected into the area around a nerve.
Migraine Treatment Offered by Kansas Pain Management
- Botox
- Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS)
- Sphenopalatine Ganglion Block
- Supraorbital Nerve Block
- Occipital Nerve Block
- Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA)
- IV Infusion Therapy
Kansas Pain Management - Treatment Philosophy For Migraine Headaches
Kansas Pain Management provides comprehensive pain management service to treat patients with varying degrees of migraines. Our team includes award winning internationally recognized physicians, specialized nurses and anesthesiologists who believe in offering quality treatment for migraine headaches so that patients can restore their lifestyle habits and obtain better health. The goal is to restore the patient’s lifestyle and eliminate drug dependency.