• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Thursday, October 2, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Can you paint your migraine?

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
September 24, 2020
in Health
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

As migraine surgery becomes more popular, plastic surgeons ask patients to paint their pain

IMAGE

Credit: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

September 24, 2020 – “Can you draw me a picture of your headache?” may sound like an unusual question – but drawings of headache pain provide plastic surgeons with valuable information on which patients are more or less likely to benefit from surgery to alleviate migraine headaches.

Patients with more “typical” patterns on pain sketches have larger reductions in headache scores after migraine “trigger site” surgery, suggests a new study by Lisa Gfrerer, MD PhD and William Gerald Austen, Jr., MD, and colleagues of Harvard Medical School. The study appears in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Migraine surgery has become an established treatment alternative for some patients with intractable migraine headaches. Developed by plastic surgeons who noticed that some migraine patients had fewer headaches after cosmetic forehead-lift, migraine surgery targets specific trigger sites linked to certain headache patterns. More than 5,200 patients underwent migraine peripheral trigger site surgery in 2019, according to ASPS statistics.

However, it can be difficult to predict which patients will get good results from migraine surgery. Drs. Gfrerer, Austen and colleagues have noticed that there are “pathognomic” pain patterns for each trigger site. “In our experience, a valuable method to visualize pain/trigger sites is to ask patients to draw their pain,” the researchers write. In the new study, they analyzed how well the patterns on these pain drawings predict the outcomes of migraine surgery.

The study included 106 patients who made pain sketches as part of their evaluation for migraine surgery. The sketches were reviewed by experienced researchers who were unaware of the patients’ headache symptoms or other characteristics, and classified into three groups:

  • Typical – showing pain originating from and spreading along the expected path of a specific nerve (59 percent of sketches)
  • Intermediate – showing pain along the path of the nerve, but with an atypical spread (radiation) of pain (29 percent)
  • Atypical – pain originating and radiating outside of the expected nerve distribution (12 percent)

One year after surgery, outcomes were assessed using a standard score, the Migraine Headache Index (MHI). Patients with typical or intermediate patterns on their pain drawings had similarly good outcomes: MHI scores improved by 73 and 78 percent, respectively.

However, for patients with atypical pain sketches the results were not as good: only 30 percent improvement in MHI score. Just one-fifth of patients in the atypical group had more than 30 percent improvement after migraine surgery.

The researchers emphasize that pain drawings should be just one part of the standard patient assessment. Migraine patients with atypical pain drawings may still have “compelling reasons” for surgery but should understand that they have lower chances of a positive outcome.

As migraine surgery becomes more widely used, pain sketches could be one way to target those patients most likely to have good outcomes. Drs Gfrerer, Austen and coauthors conclude: “As we continue to develop algorithms to select patients for migraine surgery, patient drawings should be considered as an effective, cheap, and simple-to-interpret tool to select candidates for surgery.”

###

Click here to read “Patient Pain Sketches Can Predict Surgical Outcomes in Trigger-Site Deactivation Surgery for Headaches.”

DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000007162

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery® is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

About Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

For more than 70 years, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery® (http://www.prsjournal.com/) has been the one consistently excellent reference for every specialist who uses plastic surgery techniques or works in conjunction with a plastic surgeon. The official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery® brings subscribers up-to-the-minute reports on the latest techniques and follow-up for all areas of plastic and reconstructive surgery, including breast reconstruction, experimental studies, maxillofacial reconstruction, hand and microsurgery, burn repair and cosmetic surgery, as well as news on medico-legal issues.

About ASPS

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is the largest organization of board-certified plastic surgeons in the world. Representing more than 7,000 physician members, the society is recognized as a leading authority and information source on cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. ASPS comprises more than 94 percent of all board-certified plastic surgeons in the United States. Founded in 1931, the society represents physicians certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery or The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the clinicians, nurses, accountants, lawyers, and tax, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of €4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research and clinical intelligence. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.

For more information, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Media Contact
Connie Hughes
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000007162

Tags: Medicine/HealthRehabilitation/Prosthetics/Plastic Surgery
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Spirituality Eases Occupational Stress in Nurses’ Lives

October 2, 2025

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: CA 19-9 and CA 72-4 Levels

October 2, 2025

Danshen Ligustrazine Injection: Impact on Hypertension Biomarkers

October 2, 2025

Microbiota on Tongue: Key to Autism Treatment Success

October 2, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    91 shares
    Share 36 Tweet 23
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    72 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    64 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Revolutionizing Materials: Long-Distance Remote Epitaxy

Spirituality Eases Occupational Stress in Nurses’ Lives

Edge States Shaped by Eigenvalue, Eigenstate Winding

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 60 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.