The aim of this pilot study was to compare the efficacy of pulsed radiofrequency to the greater occipital nerve versus a greater occipital nerve block with a mixture of local anaesthetic and steroid in the management of refractory cervicogenic headache. We enrolled 30 patients suffering from refractory cervicogenic headache. Patients were randomly allocat...

Headache syndromes often involve occipital and neck symptoms, suggesting a functional connectivity between nociceptive trigeminal and cervical afferents. Although reports regarding effective occipital nerve blockades in cluster headache exist, the reason for the improvement of the clinical symptoms is not known. Using occipital nerve blockade and nociceptive blink reflexes, we were able to demo...

BACKGROUND Two studies recently reported that computed tomography (CT) guided infiltration of the greater occipital nerve at its intermediate site allows a high efficacy rate with long-lasting pain relief following procedure in occipital neuralgia and in various craniofacial pain syndromes. OBJECTIVE The purpose of our study was to evaluate the technical feasibility and safety of ultrasound-g...

Anaesthesiologists must always prefer the safest method to minimize the risk for patients. At present, ultrasound-guided blockage of the greater occipital nerve can be performed in a safe manner. In this report, we presented our experience of ultrasound-guided blockage of the greater occipital nerve that we performed in a patient with a mass at the back of the neck who had risk of general anaes...

We analyzed relationships among tinnitus relief, dizziness, and results of vertical autocorrelation studies of head movement to investigate the effect of greater occipital nerve block on the sensory and motor system in 2 patients with abnormal head movement. Tinnitus improved in 14 (52%) of 28 tinnitus patients after occipital nerve block. The percentage of patients reporting tinnitus improveme...

CASE PRESENTATION A 50-year-old male developed a painless swelling over the scalp of the right occiput following an ablative cardiac procedure. Upon waking from general anesthesia, he noticed a “bump” on the back of his head and complete loss of sensation over his right scalp, extending rostrally to behind the hairline, caudally to the nuchal line, medially to the midline, and laterally to abov...

rhythms (for example, by temporary transcutaneous pacing, magnet). • The often-given recommendation of application of the 'current in a fashion that it will not cross the generator ⁄ lead ⁄ chest system' might be of less relevance than currently thought. In our case, repositioning the return electrode away from the apex of the heart did not result in any change of the current necessary to trans...

Greater occipital nerve block (GONB) is a common procedure to diagnose and treat patients with occipital neuralgia and to differentiate headaches of cervical origin from other types of headaches (1,2). Although a relatively safe method and easy to perform, the classical method of blind injection just medial to the palpated occipital artery at the level of the superior nuchal line is not target ...

Occipital nerve stimulation (ONS) is a form of peripheral nerve stimulation used to treat refractory headaches. The trial of ONS was carried with the midline incision C1-2 level, inserted electrical lead subcutaneously to oblique and cephalad direction followed by trajectory of blunt dissection. We used 8 pole electrical lead to cover lesser occipital nerve, greater occipital nerve, third occip...

Trigeminal neuropathy is a condition characterized by sensory disturbance in the distribution of the trigeminal nerve (1). It can be caused by a wide variety of conditions, including trauma, tumours, connective tissue disorders, infections or neurovascular conflict. In many cases, however, no obvious cause is found. A case is presented in which a patient with idiopathic trigeminal neuropathy un...