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Treating Therapy-Resistant Headache After Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage with Acupuncture

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Abstract

Introduction

Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is usually associated with severe headache, whereas the options of pharmacological analgesia are restricted. Acupuncture is a promising method in treatment of headaches associated with meningeal sensitivity or irritation, such as migraine or post-dural puncture headache.

Case Report

We report on 3 patients, who suffered severe headache due to aneurysmal SAH, and received acupuncture when pharmacological measures were exhausted. After acupuncture treatment all patients reported at least 50% pain reduction and could stop or reduce analgesics without side effects.

Discussion

Acupuncture may be an effective pain treatment method in patients suffering from headache due to SAH. Randomized trials using acupuncture as an add-on to standard analgesic therapy would help evaluate the role of acupuncture for this purpose.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Mike Cummings for preparation of figures and language correction of the manuscript and Dr. Cornelia Koch for her clinical advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Health Economy, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Joanna Dietzel

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, University Medicine of Greifswald, Sauerbruchstrasse, 17475, Greifswald, Germany

    Torsten Eck & Taras Usichenko

  3. Department of Anesthesia, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

    Taras Usichenko

Authors
  1. Joanna Dietzel
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  2. Torsten Eck
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  3. Taras Usichenko
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Contributions

J.D. was involved in the treatment of patients using acupuncture, data collection and interpretation, and writing the MS; T.E. contributed to management of patients at ICU, data collection, and writing the MS; and T.U. was involved in the idea of the investigation, treatment of patients, data interpretation, and writing the MS.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Taras Usichenko.

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There was no support for this work.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was received from each patient, and ethics commission has approved this retrospective case series investigation.

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Dietzel, J., Eck, T. & Usichenko, T. Treating Therapy-Resistant Headache After Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage with Acupuncture. Neurocrit Care 31, 434–438 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12028-019-00718-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12028-019-00718-3

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