Neurosurgery

Treatment of Migraine by Stimulation of Greater Occipital Nerve

Jaslok pioneers surgery for critical migraine

Neurostimulation device

Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai recently performed surgery for treatment of migraine by stimulation of the Greater Occipital Nerve (GON).

Tilak Lodya has been suffering from migraine from the past 11 years, when he came at the doors of Jaslok Hospital. Apart from medical treatment, he had also tried Botulinum Toxin treatment in the past but the migraine had turned intractable.

"As his work was suffering due to the severe migraine attacks, he agreed to undergo the Occipital Nerve (ON) stimulation procedure. So, he was implanted with eight contact electrodes," said Dr Paresh Doshi, HOD, Department of Sterotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Jaslok Hospital. The electrodes are connected to the pacemaker implanted on the chest wall. The pacemaker delivers current to stimulate the GON through the electrodes. So whenever the patient gets migraine attack he can switch on the pacemaker and control his migraine. This surgery does not cure migraine, it only controls the migraine attacks.

"Patients are selected by the specialist as per the International Headache Society guidelines to undergo this treatment," said Dr K Ravishankar, Headache Specialist, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai.

Now the patient has been off drugs and has not suffered any lasting migraine attacks. And in future even if he does get an attack he can switch on the pacemaker anytime and be relieved from the attack. "Although this procedure has been done on 40 patients all across the world, this is the first time in India we have carried out this procedure," said Dr Doshi.

The surgery costs Rs 4 lakh which is inclusive of the cost of the equipment that is Rs 2-3 lakh. About 70 per cent of people suffer from mild migraine, 40 per cent suffer from chronic migraine and 10 per cent are victims of intractable migraine, which is difficult to treat.

EH News Bureau