Long-Term Experience with Occipital and Supraorbital Nerve Stimulation for the Various Headache Disorders—A Retrospective Institutional Case Series of 96 Patients

-OBJECTIVE: We have provided long-term data on clinically meaningful pain alleviation for drug-refractory headache disorders using occipital (ONS) and supraorbital nerve stimulation (SONS). -METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of 96 patients with migraine, cervicogenic headache, cluster headache, neuropathic pain of the scalp, tension-type headache, and new daily persistent headache who had -ndergone ONS (61.5%), SONS (11.5%), or combined ONS plus SONS (27.1%) trial implantation and definitive implantation from 2007 to 2017. Changes in pain perception over time were monitored using the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain. -RESULTS: The cohort consisted of 60.4% women and 39.6% men, with a mean age of 46.9 +/- 11.5 years and pain duration of 14 +/- 14.1 years. Of the 96 patients, 65 (67.7%) were treatment responders to a trial (& Dagger;30% amelioration in the average or maximum VAS score for pain and/or number of headache days) that had lasted 22.5 +/- 8.8 days. The reduction in their average VAS score for pain was to 37% +/- 24.4% of baseline compared with 99.1% +/- 24.1% of baseline for those without a response (P < 0.01). Of the 56 patients who had undergone implantation and had long-term follow-up data available for 10 pound years, 32 (57.1%) reported a & Dagger;50% reduction in their average VAS score for pain. Four patients (6.5%) had requested hardware explantation. Stage II complications included 1 infection (1.6%) and 6 electrode dislocations (9.7%). The study limitations & nbsp;included the retrospective nature, lack of controls receiving placebo intervention, and randomization. -CONCLUSIONS: After careful patient selection according to a positive response to a trial of ONS and/or SONS, clinically meaningful long-term benefit was achieved in 57.1% of our patients with various chronic headache conditions.