Open AccessPatient Pain Sketches Can Predict Surgical Outcomes in Trigger-Site Deactivation Surgery for Headaches
Author(s) -
Lisa Gfrerer,
Marek A. Hansdorfer,
Ricardo Ortíz,
Kassandra P. Nealon,
Christian Chartier,
Gem Runyan,
Samuel D. Zarfos,
William G. Austen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plastic and reconstructive surgery/psef cd journals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.841
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1076-5751
pISSN - 0032-1052
DOI - 10.1097/prs.0000000000007162
Subject(s) - medicine , migraine , headaches , pathognomonic , surgery , anesthesia , physical therapy , disease
Patient selection for headache surgery is an important variable to ensure successful outcomes. In the authors' experience, a valuable method to visualize pain/trigger sites is to ask patients to draw their pain. The authors have found that there are pathognomonic pain patterns for each site, and typically do not operate on patients with atypical pain sketches, as they believe such patients are poor surgical candidates. However, a small subset of these atypical patients undergo surgery based on other strong clinical findings. In this study, the authors attempt to quantify this clinical experience.