Cirugía de implantación de microestimulador del ganglio esfenopalatino. Manejo anestésico y revisión de la literatura

La cefalea en racimos es un tipo de cefalea trigémino-autonómica con síntomas marcadamente disfuncionales debidos al intenso dolor y a la aparición de signos disautonómicos hemicraneales ipsilaterales recurrentes. El tratamiento médico no siempre resulta eficaz o puede no tolerarse debido a sus efectos adversos. El desarrollo de técnicas quirúrgicas que inciden en el tratamiento a través de la estimulación de estructuras directamente relacionadas con el dolor, supone una nueva y esperanzadora herramienta terapéutica para este tipo de pacientes. Además de una cirugía correcta, el tipo de anestesia para la intervención debe ser cuidadosa y adecuarse a la necesidad de trabajar sobre un campo quirúrgico oro-facial amplio. Presentamos dos casos de pacientes con cefalea en racimos de evolución crónica y refractaria a tratamiento, sometidos a la implantación quirúrgica de un microestimulador en el ganglio esfenopalatino bajo anestesia general. ABSTRACT Sphenopalatine ganglion microstimulator surgical insertion. Anesthetic management and literature review Cluster headache is a trigeminal-autonomic headache with severe symptoms due to recurrent intense pain and ipsilateral autonomic manifestations. Medical treatment is not always succesful or may be poorly tolerated for side effects. The development of surgical technics who involve the stimulation of the pain centers, is a new and hopeful tool for these patients. Althought a correct surgery, anesthesia may be careful and must fit into a board surgical orofacial field. We expose a case for chronic and refractory cluster headache, treated by sphenopalatine ganglion microstimulator surgical insertion under general anesthesia.

SUNCT syndrome: A cohort of 15 Portuguese patients

Background In this paper, we describe a cohort of patients with short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT), a rare trigeminal autonomic headache, managed in the outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital. Methods Patients were identified through review of individual records between January 1, 2008 and June 30, 2014. Results Fifteen patients were identified (eight males:seven females), with mean age at onset of 49.7 years, mean number of attacks per day of 7.5 and mean attack duration of 54.6 seconds. Pain was mostly orbital, periorbital or temporal. Cranial autonomic signs/symptoms were universally present; one patient reported ipsilateral epistaxis. Two symptomatic cases were identified and treated surgically. Most patients responded to lamotrigine, one to topiramate and another to eslicarbazepine. Conclusion Our case series is among the largest reported, with findings similar to others already published, but the first to report epistaxis during SUNCT attack and response to eslicarbazepine.