Cervical migraine (headaches). Shockwave therapy at the Awatage medical center

Cervical migraine

Today it is difficult to meet a person who has never experienced a headache. This state is so familiar to us that we have learned to perceive it almost as a norm in everyday life. However, it is dangerous to underestimate the headache. This symptom can be observed in a wide variety of diseases, often very severe (such as a brain tumor, stroke, etc.).

There are also many types of headaches that are not fatal in themselves, but cause significant inconvenience to a person. Without adequate treatment, pain can bother for years, disrupting performance for a long time and significantly reducing the quality of life of people of a young, active age.

One such extremely common condition is cervical migraine. Synonyms of the disease are the terms "vertebral artery syndrome", "posterior cervical sympathetic syndrome", "Bare-Lieu syndrome", which confuses the terminology.

Causes and symptoms of cervical migraine

In the general understanding of the concept of cervical migraine, a circulatory disorder occurs in the region of the brain due to a violation of blood flow through one or both of the vertebral arteries. This is a headache that is caused by abnormalities in the cervical spine.

The painful process can affect a variety of structures: nerves, their roots, anatomical formations of the spinal column - uncovertebral joints, intervertebral discs, facet joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons. With an incorrect head position during sedentary work, injuries, etc., inflammatory and degenerative changes occur in the cervical spine, which lead to compression of the vertebral arteries and the occurrence of pain.

Characterized by attacks of pain in one half of the head, radiating from the occipital to the anterior regions up to the frontal-orbital region. Pain syndrome is accompanied by vegetative-vascular disorders, dizziness, hearing impairment, nausea, sometimes numbness and a burning sensation in the throat. General neurotic symptoms, irritability, chronic fatigue are not uncommon. The pain is accompanied by a forced position of the neck, parasthesia - numbness, tingling, burning sensation - in the shoulders and arms. All these manifestations are intensified with sudden head movements.

A characteristic feature of cervical migraine is its tendency to become chronic. Pain bothers the patient for months and even years, which can sometimes even lead to disability.

Traditional treatment for cervical migraine

Traditional treatment for cervical migraine includes the use of vascular, pain relievers, anti-inflammatory drugs, and sedatives. Methods of reflexology, pharmacopuncture, physiotherapy methods of treatment are widely used.

The disadvantage of all of the above methods is their rather low efficiency in this pathology, the slow development of a positive effect, which at times has to wait for years, as well as a significant number of side effects. In addition, with prolonged use of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, addiction occurs to them, which also significantly reduces the effectiveness of treatment. This circumstance forces the doctor and the patient to often resort to changing drugs, which increases the cost of treatment.

Shockwave therapy in the treatment of cervical migraine

Fortunately, in recent years, shock wave therapy (SWT) has been increasingly used in the treatment of headaches (cervical migraine) associated with pathology of the cervical spine. A shock (acoustic) wave is an artificially created focused pressure pulse, which, when transmitted to human tissues, has a number of beneficial effects in them.

In particular, with cervical migraine, the shock wave reduces the severity of degenerative and inflammatory processes in the spinal motion segment, which has a beneficial effect on blood circulation in the vertebral arteries and reduces the frequency of attacks, eliminates reflex muscle spasm, stimulates thick (myelinated) nerve fibers of tactile and deep sensitivity, suppressing pain impulses carried out by thin nerve fibers.

We combine shockwave therapy in the treatment of cervical migraine with biomechanical muscle stimulation using the V-Actor technology, which directly affects the muscles, relaxing them, relieves local spasms, improves blood circulation and lymph flow.

These processes lead to the elimination of pain syndrome and, accordingly, facilitate the course of the disease and lead to recovery.

SWT advantages:

Non-invasiveness (without compromising tissue integrity). The procedure is performed using special nozzles on the equipment of the world famous Belgian company Gymna. No injections are required, which excludes the possibility of introducing infectious diseases;
Fast effect. In the Awatage medical center, we often observed a sharp decrease in pain in cervical migraine after the first procedure!
Saving time and money. The course of treatment includes an average of 4-6 procedures with an interval of 5-7 days. The duration of each procedure is 10-15 minutes. In addition, the cost of a course of treatment of shock wave therapy for cervical migraine is significantly lower than the cost of pharmacological treatment, and its effectiveness is incomparably higher.
Security. When treating cervical migraine, we use radial shock waves, which completely eliminates the possibility of side effects. Shock wave therapy is combined with all therapeutic methods, including pharmacological, physiotherapy, massage, etc.

Scientific report of the doctors of the clinic "Awatage" at the VII International Medical Forum - "Treatment of some types of headaches using the RSWT method"