A team of radiologists found out that a procedure can significantly alleviate pain linked to migraine attacks simply by spraying an aesthetic on the nerves found inside the person's nasal cavity.
The innovative interventional radiology treatment has been discovered to offer patients suffering from frequent migraines pain relief from their headaches.
The radiologists were from the Albany Medical Center and the State University New York Empire State College. They discovered that lidocains (Xylocaine), a local anesthetic, can eventually reduce the pain caused by migraine headaches by as much as 35% after only one treatment session. They presented their study at the Society of Interventional Radiology's Annual Scientific Meeting.
According to Dr. Kenneth Mandato, a Radiologist in Albany, New York, "Migraine headaches are one of the most common, debilitating diseases in the United States, and the cost and side effects of medicine to address migraines can be overwhelming. Intranasal sphenopalatine ganglion blocks are image-guided, 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."
Dr. Mandato and his colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of 112 patients who often suffer from migraine. They assessed the pain levels and migraine symptoms of their participants. The average age of the group was 45, as reported by a press release.
They reported the severity of pain on a visual analogue scale ranging from 1-10 to quantify the degree of debilitation experienced from the migraine. Before the treatment, most of them reported an average of eight in the pain scale.
During the treatment, researchers have inserted a spaghetti-sized catheter through the nasal passages and administed 4% lidocaine to the sphenipalatine ganglion, which is a nerve just behind the nose, often is said to cause migraines.
Afterwards, the patients reported that the pain levels of their migraines have dropped from eight to only four. What's more interesting is that the pain levels remained constant for over a month. Around 88% said that they have used lower dosage drugs for pain relief after the procedure.
However, the researchers pointed out that the treatment is only a temporary solution and not a cure for migraine. It only provides pain relief but will not eradicate it.