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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> sphenopalative ganglion block
        
(Message started by: ctygrl1965 on Dec 17^th, 2007, 3:14pm)

Title: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by ctygrl1965 on Dec 17^th, 2007, 3:14pm

My husband has suffered with clusters for 20 years. He's tried everything under the sun for treatment. Last year he tried Topomax and it was a big success. This year it doesn't seem to be working. He went to the pain clinic the other day and (after two unsuccessful medication tries) they want to try a sphenopalative ganglion block. Has anyone tried this before? Was it successful?

Title: Re: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by vietvet2tours on Dec 17^th, 2007, 4:00pm

on 12/17/07 at 15:14:17, ctygrl1965 wrote:

List everything under the sun please.

Potter

Title: Re: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by ctygrl1965 on Dec 17^th, 2007, 4:06pm

He's tried prednasone, verapamil, neurontin, imitrex, topamax, vancenace and the only working,ever popular oxygen. The pain doctor put him on lyrica and trileptal but they only made things worse.

Title: Re: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by Ray on Dec 17^th, 2007, 4:16pm

Dear Ctygrl1965:

The sphenopalatine ganglion is a "nerve bundle" that has a branch where the back of the nose meets the soft palate. I have not had a "blockade" there, but I have had topical anesthetics there.

This was somewhat successful for me, maybe 1 out of 4 headaches were aborted that way. The topical anesthetic will temporarily put the nerves to "sleep". This may cause the trigeminal ganglion to also go to "sleep" causing an end to the pain.

This is temporary, and if successful, it will not last long.

I hope that this information is helpful,

Ray

Title: Re: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by Linda_Howell on Dec 17^th, 2007, 4:19pm

What you have mentioned is HARDLY everything.

Go here, and scroll down to treatments.

http://www.clusterheadaches.com/about.html

Linda

Title: Re: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by vietvet2tours on Dec 17^th, 2007, 4:51pm

I experimented with a caine for quite a while It didn't help nor did it hurt.Course nuthin hurt.

Potter

Title: Re: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by Guiseppi on Dec 17^th, 2007, 5:02pm

I haven't seen many postings of success for the surgical routes. The success stories were temporary....which at this point probably sounds like heaven to him. I'm lucky in that lithium has been a really effective prevent with oxygen and imitrex beating down the demon.

Your frustration comes through loud and clear, sounds like he's really getting creamed.

Has he tried lithium? It's had a pretty good success rate on the board. For dosage comparisons, I'm male, 47, weigh about 190 and am episodic. When on cycle I take 1200 mg of lithium carbonate a day, 300 mg pills 4 X a day, evenly spread over the day. Takes about 2 weeks to kick in but then it's about 90% effective in blocking.

Thanks for doing the research for him, I really can't advise you on the surgical route as I have no experience with it. Good luck what ever route he chooses and thanks again for being his supporter.

Guiseppi

Title: Re: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by Chappy on Dec 17^th, 2007, 8:34pm

First, I don't think a ganglion block is a surgery, unless I'm totally misunderstanding. That's just an injection, right? I have had a nerve block injection to ganglion in the back of the neck. It's a different ganglion, but it's where much of my pain centers, and is generally swollen and tender on palpation, so they tried a nerve block injection. They first did a caine injection (anesthetic), and then the nerve block injection.

The caine anesthetic numbed the area for a couple of hours. I wasn't in the middle of an attack, so I can't say that it would or would not have helped. The nerve block, if successful, was supposed to lead to weeks or months of no pain, but in my case it led to 3 or 4 days of increased pain. I described it as the Tourettes Syndrome injection, because I don't normally swear but for 3 days I couldn't say "F--ing Mayo" and "F--ing Dr. D----" enough times.

Anyway, that was my experience, but if my best friend had CH, I would tell them to give it a shot, because I don't think the downside (a few days of worse pain) can even be compared to the possible upside (weeks of no pain).

BTW - the only surgical treatments I've read about with any long term lasting effects are "deep brain stimulation" implants, but they're still experimental, only done for very select chronic sufferers by a few surgeons.

Title: Re: sphenopalative ganglion block
Post by thebbz on Dec 17^th, 2007, 10:34pm

;;DIt this on the list...clusterbusters.com
thebb ;;D