Abstract

Background
Because the cause and etiology of chronic headache are not yet fully explained, the treatment is not simple and difficult. Chronic headache imposes considerable burdens on sufferer and society as well. Although stellate ganglion block(SGB) is usually used for the treatment of chronic headache, we evaluated and compared the effectiveness of SGB in treating chronic tension headache and migraine patients on pain alleviation and improving the quality of life after an 8 weeks treatment duration. Methods: Patients who experienced headache for more than 4 hours a day and more than 15 days a month were diagnosed as chronic headache and 46 subjects in total were enrolled in this study. The patients were randomly classified into two groups, migraine group(MG, n=26) and tension headache group(TG, n=20). The patients of both groups were treated with only SGB twice a week for 8 weeks and evaluated effectiveness after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment, and 4 weeks after the end of treatment. The effectiveness of these treatments in two groups were analyzed using Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) pain scores and Brief Pain Inventory(BPI). Results: The VAS and BPI after 8 weeks of treatment showed significant differences compared with those of MG and TG before treatment and there were no differences between two groups. The VAS and BPI of two groups, 4 weeks after the end of treatment, showed also statistically significant improvement compared with those before treatment in both groups. Conclusions: The above results suggested that SGB might be an useful modality for alleviating the pain and improving the quality of life in TG and MG patients.