Impact of Greater Occipital Nerve Block on Photophobia Levels in Migraine Patients

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Title Impact of Greater Occipital Nerve Block on Photophobia Levels in Migraine Patients
Creator Javier A Membrilla, Íñigo de Lorenzo, Lucía Sánchez-Casado, María Sastre, Javier Díaz de Terán
Affiliation Neurology Department (JAM, IdL, LS-C, MS, JDdT), University Hospital "La Paz", Madrid, Spain; and La Paz Institute for Health Research (IdiPAZ) (MS, JDdT), Madrid, Spain
Abstract Background: To study the effect of greater occipital nerve (GON) block on migraine-associated photophobia levels. Photophobia is one of the most bothersome symptoms reported by migraine patients. Studies investigating the impact of migraine treatment on this symptom are scarce. Methods: This is an observational prospective case-control study. Patients with migraine and photophobia attending a Headache Clinic were recruited. Cases were defined as patients in whom GON block was performed, following usual clinical practice guidelines. All patients were evaluated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Migraine Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire, the Utah Photophobia Symptom Impact Scale (UPSIS-12), and the Korean Photophobia Questionnaire (KUMC-8); both in the first visit (V1) and one week after (V2). Results: Forty-one patients were recruited, 28 (68.3%) cases and 13 (31.7%) controls. At V1, there were no significant differences in the median [p25-p75] score of UPSIS-12 in cases vs controls (32.0 [21.0-34.0] vs 30.5 [22.0-37.0], P = 0.497) or KUMC-8 (6.5 [5.5-7.0] vs 7.0 [6.0-8.0], P = 0.463). At V2, cases experimented a significant improvement in UPSIS-12 of -5.5 [-8.8 to -1.3] and in KUMC-8 of -0.5 [-2.0 to 0], whereas there were no significant changes in the control group. Migraine with aura patients presented higher UPSIS-12 score at V1 (33.5 [24.5-37.0] vs 26.0 [16.0-35.0]) and lesser improvement at V2 after GON block compared with migraine without aura patients (-4.0 [-6.0 to -1.0] vs -8.0 [-17.0 to -2.0]), although statistical significance was not achieved ( P = 0.643 and P = 0.122, respectively). There was no significant variation in the remaining scales. Conclusions: Greater occipital nerve block improves migraine-associated photophobia, measured with UPSIS-12 and KUMC-8. Patients without aura may exhibit a greater improvement. Physicians could consider GON block for management of photophobia in migraine patients.
Subject Case-Control Studies; Humans; Migraine Disorders* / complications; Migraine Disorders* / diagnosis; Migraine Disorders* / therapy; Nerve Block*; Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome* / complications; Photophobia / complications; Quality of Life
OCR Text Show
Date 2022-09
Date Digital 2022-09
References 1. Albilali A, Dilli E. Photophobia: when light hurts, a review. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2018;18:62. 2. Goadsby PJ, Holland PR, Martins-Oliveira M, Hoffmann J, Schankin C, Akerman S. Pathophysiology of migraine: a disorder of sensory processing. Physiol Rev. 2017;97:553-622. 3. Choi JY, Oh K, Kim BJ, Chung CS, Koh SB, Park KW. Usefulness of a photophobia questionnaire in patients with migraine. Cephalalgia. 2009;29:953-959. 4. Headache Classification Committee of the International Headache Society (IHS). The international classification of headache disorders, 3rd edition. Cephalalgia. 2018;38:1-211. 5. Ashina M. Migraine. N Engl J Med. 2020;383:1866-1876.
Language eng
Format application/pdf
Type Text
Publication Type Journal Article
Source Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology, September 2022, Volume 42, Issue 3
Publisher Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
Holding Institution Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah, 10 N 1900 E SLC, UT 84112-5890
Rights Management © North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society
ARK ark:/87278/s601cd9p
Setname ehsl_novel_jno
ID 2344191
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s601cd9p
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