What Does Blocking The Greater Occipital Nerve Do?
August 3, 2009 by dean · Leave a Comment
I have been mentioning the research which shows that by injecting and anaesthetising the greater occipital nerve the migraine process can be halted … so what does this do?
Anaesthetising the greater occipital nerve prevents information from (neck) structures supplied by the nerve from entering into the spinal cord (and the brainstem). The effect of this on migraine and headache symptoms suggests that this information being carried by the nerve was sensitising the brainstem and that by preventing it from reaching the brainstem, the brainstem is no longer sensitised.
This then is considered a diagnostic tool to confirm cervicogenic (neck) disorders in headache and migraine.
Cheers
Dean
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Peres MF. et al Greater occipital nerve blockade for cluster headache. Cephalalgia 2002;22:520-522
Rozen T. Cessation of hemiplegic migraine auras with greater occipital nerve blockade. Headache 2007;47:917-928
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Young et al. The first 5 minutes after greater occipital nerve block. Headache 2008;48:1126-1139)
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