Presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, a recent study suggests that image-guided intranasal treatment can lead to less medication for migraine pain.
Specifically, clinicians at Albany Medical Center and the State University New York Empire State College in Saratoga Springs provided patients with image-guided, intranasal sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) blocks as pain relief for chronic migraines. Eighty-eight percent of these patients later reported requiring less or no migraine medication for ongoing relief.
“Migraine headaches are one of the most common, debilitating diseases in the Unites States, and the cost and side effects of medicine to address migraines can be overwhelming,” said Kenneth Mandato, M.D., the study’s lead researcher and an interventional radiologist at Albany Medical Center. “Intranasal sphenopalatine ganglion blocks are image-guide, targeted, breakthrough treatments. They offer a patient-centered therapy that has the potential to break the migraine cycle and quickly improve patients’ quality of life.”
The retrospective analysis included 112 patients suffering migraine or cluster headaches. As part of the minimally invasive treatment, researchers inserted a spaghetti-sized catheter through the nasal passages and administered 4 percent lidocaine to the sphenopalatine ganglion, a nerve bundle located behind the nose. Thirty days after the procedure, patients still reported a significant reduction in the severity of their headaches.
“Administration of lidocaine to the sphenopalatine ganglion acts as a ‘reset button’ for the brain’s migraine circuitry,” Mandato said. “When the initial numbing of the lidocaine wears off, the migraine trigger seems to no longer have the maximum effect that it once did. Some patients have reported immediate relief and are making fewer trips to the hospital for emergency headache medicine.”
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