Dealing With Headaches

A “simple” surgical procedure being developed in South Africa is showing some promising signs of helping people to relive migraine pain. No, you don’t go for the surgery every time you have a migraine — this is a preventative. The procedure involves cauterizing selected blood vessels in the scalp. (Cauterizing means they burn it away.)

The Gory Details

The scalp surgery for migraines was developed at The Headache Clinic in South Africa by Dr. Elliot Sevel, a surgeon who specializes in head, face and jaw procedures. The scalp sugery for migraines was performed on 42 women and 13 men. The patients report imporvement of their migraines up to a rather head-scratching 250%.

Obviously, only 55 people do not represent a large part of the migraine-suffering population, so firther studies are going to be done. These studies will be backed by the Italian government (what’s left of it, anyway) and the South African governement. A multi-national team of neurologists will be put together to further pursue buring blood vessels in the scalp.

The good news is that this is a quick procedure that does not usually require an overnight stays. The 55 human guinea-pigs also dod not have a lot of scarring from the scalp surgery for migraines.

Why Am I Not More Enthusiastic About This?

And it’s not just because I haven’t had breakfast yet. Granted, I’m not a neurlogist or even a person who ever got an A in Chemistry, but this surgery does seem to be based on the premise that migraines are caused by the dilation and contraction of blood vessels in the head. This is an older theory that has recently fallen out of favor in the medical community.

Now, the theory is that serotnin levels coupled with a suddenly active hypothalamus are the culprits for migraines and severe headaches. The fact is, no one knows why we get migraines, which is why they are so notoriously difficult to treat.

Now, hopefully, all of the new theories are wrong and the cause of migraines DOES turn out to be dilation and contraction of blood vessels in the head. Otherwise, there are going to be a lot of people who get this surgery and still have migraines.

However, at least 55 people in the world are migraine-free and that alone is worth celebrating and blogging about.