Surgical Management of Post-Traumatic Occipital Migraines Study

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is any superiority of one of the two current standard-of-care surgical treatments for often debilitating post-traumatic occipital migraines. These procedures involve freeing up or removing one or more of the occipital nerves deemed to be the source of these headaches. This is a single institution study at Rush University Medical Center, and there will be 25 patients enrolled in each study arm. The two standard-of-care procedures will be assigned to the study population randomly.

In order to participate you must meet the following criteria:

• Have a history of sharp or blunt head or neck trauma or a concussion as an inciting event for occipital headaches.
• Have chronic headaches occurring in the occipital distribution (back of head) for over 1 year, as diagnosed by neurologist.
• Are between 18 and 65 years of age.
• Are male or female.

You will be excluded from the study if any of the following criteria apply to you:

• Have a headache of any etiology other than specified in the inclusion criteria.
• Have occipital referral of pain arising from the atlantoaxial or upper zygapophyseal joints or from tender trigger points in neck muscles or their insertions.
• Are a pregnant or breastfeeding.
• Have significant comorbidities including short life expectancy, malignancy, degenerative central nervous system diseases, infection, severe psychiatric disorders.

This is a partial list of inclusion and exclusion criteria.