By Vernon Rowe, Dana Winegarner, and Aaron Seacat
Doctors at the Headache Treatment Center of the Rowe Neurology Institute are using a new device, called the Tx360, for headache treatment in a specially selected group of patients with chronic migraine headache, and certain types of a headaches called Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias, or TAC’s. A recent study showed that the procedure helped patients with chronic migraine, without having to use needles.
“This device helps us deliver a local anesthetic to a group of nerve cells important in the pain pathway of certain types of headache, and it doesn’t require needles or expensive endoscopic procedures, we don’t charge facility fees, and it’s totally an outpatient procedure. But the trick, and that’s true of all patients with headache, is to know what kind of headache you’re dealing with. You need to get to the root causes and real triggers of the headaches a particular patient has. That’s what helps us know which medicine or procedure is likely to work,” says Dr. Dana Winegarner, head of the RNI Headache Center. “Right now, Botox is the only FDA approved drug for Chronic Migraine. RNI has successfully used Botox in patients for several years, but these injections involve needles. The new procedure could be a major step forward in getting patients relief for Chronic Migraine who don’t like needles.”
Data analysis of thousands of patients, at the Rowe Neurology Institute, revealed that several previously unknown factors, like sleep and neck problems, can impact a patient’s migraine severity and frequency. Rather than add yet another drug to a patient’s already long list of drugs, neurology sub-specialists working side by side at the Headache Treatment Center at the RNI, also discovered some of the common things patients do every day can trigger a migraine cascade.
Headaches have many causes and triggers and every patient is unique in some way. We have yet to find a single patient who comes with a ready-made recipe for their headache treatment. The detailed history and physical exam, amplified by appropriate testing for other disorders, must be carefully analyzed for every patient. Only in this way can maximal quality of life be achieved for every patient.