Migraine Surgery

Migraine surgery is any surgical operation undertaken with the goal of reducing or preventing migraines. Innovative surgical techniques have been developed to help patients with migraine headaches. Migraines affect an estimated 10% of the worldwide population annually and cause significant loss of workdays and billions of dollars in productivity. It is well documented that migraine headaches cause significant disability, and reduce of quality of life that is as dire, if not worse than, debilitating chronic diseases. There have been major pharmacological advances for the treatment of migraine headaches, yet patients must still endure symptoms until the medications take effect. Furthermore, often they still experience a poor quality of life despite an aggressive regimen of pharmacotherapy. For these reasons, surgical solutions to migraines are actively being researched, particularly those involving the surgical cauterization of the superficial blood vessels of the scalp (the terminal branches of the external carotid artery), the removal of muscles in areas known as "trigger sites", and those involving the correction of a congenital heart defect. Despite the lack of evidence supporting the removal of muscles, there are over a dozen surgeons actively performing these operations in the US.