Four Decades of Occipital Nerve Stimulation for Headache Disorders: A Systematic Review. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Chronic headaches are a significant source of disability worldwide. Despite the development of conventional strategies, a subset of patients remain refractory and/or experience side effects following these treatments. Hence, occipital nerve stimulation (ONS) should be considered as an alternative strategy for intractable chronic headaches. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the effectiveness, safety, mechanisms and practical application of ONS for the treatment of headache disorders. RECENT FINDINGS: Overall response rate of ONS is 35.7-100%, 17-100%, and 63-100% in patients with cluster headache, chronic migraine and occipital neuralgia respectively. Regarding the long-term effectivity in all groups, 41.6-88.0% of patients remain responders after ≥ 18.3 months. The most frequently reported adverse events include lead migration/fracture (13%) and local pain (7.3%). Based on our results, ONS can be considered a safe and effective treatment for chronic intractable headache disorders. To support more widespread application of ONS, additional research with larger sample sizes should be conducted.

publication date

  • June 22, 2024

Research

keywords

  • Electric Stimulation Therapy
  • Headache Disorders

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85196636375

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1007/s11916-024-01271-1

PubMed ID

  • 38907793

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 28

issue

  • 10