Migraine without aura

Global Medical Institute focuses on three categories of migraine: frontal, occipital and temporal.

We make a point of distinguishing between these forms of migraine, generally depending on the starting point of your migraine pain.

So that we can offer you the right treatment to ease your pain and reduce or even remove the symptoms of your migraine, it is very important for our specialists to know where your pain starts, and to locate it.

In the following pages, we’d like to give you the facts about migraine without aura, so that you can find out more.

Why is it important to locate the starting point of your pain? What is a migraine without aura? What treatments are available at Global Medical Institute?

This section will help you make a free and informed choice.

The importance of localizing the pain of a migraine without aura

If you can locate the starting pointof your pain, the specialists at Global Medical Institute will be able to help you treat your migraine, whether temporal, occipital or frontal.

Our center focuses first and foremost on the starting point of the pain, before proposing any medical or surgical treatment.

Sometimes, an initial consultation can be carried out via teleconsultation from the comfort of your own home: Global Medical Institute’s specialists will be able to explain whether your suffering can be relieved by our minimally invasive approach.

By focusing on the location of the pain, we give ourselves the means to treat your symptoms. That is why it is important for you to be able to locate it.

Although it is important to have a precise definition of your migraine, it is not uncommon for our patients to get lost in the different types of migraine, names, definitions and so on.

Migraines are not easily defined, and there are many different types. Our neurologists specialize in the classification and treatment of migraine headaches. Our surgeons specialize in treating the pain expression of your migraines.

The only important point to focus on is the location of the pain, in particular the point of pain onset. It is on the basis of this location that we can help you decide whether the pain is frontal, occipital or temporal.

If the starting point of the pain is consistent with the pinched nerve or vessels, if that is where the pain began: that is where our doctors and surgeons can act. We decompress the nerve and free it from the structures that are trapping it: these structures can be vessels, muscles, tendons, etc.

What is a migraine without aura?

An aura is a neurological phenomenon that precedes the pain in a migraine. For example, visual disturbances, changes in the visual field, flashes of light in front of the eyes, tingling on one side, inability to speak, stammering or even not understanding what you are being told... These are neurologicalphenomena, and the sufferer is generally not yet in pain when they have this problem.

Migraine sufferers account for 20% of migraines with aura and 80% of migraines without aura.

Migraines without aura are more likely to occur in women. It often runs in families. Migraine without aura is often closely associated with menstrual periods (see the “menstrual migraine” page).

What are the symptoms of migraine without aura?

Generally speaking, the symptoms of migraine without aura are as follows:

• attacks lasting 2 to 72 hours
• Bilateral localization
• Pulsatile
• Moderate to severe intensity
• Aggravation by physical activity
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Phonophobia and/or photophobia

In short, migraine without aura is unilateral in adults and often bilateral in children. Pain is pulsatile. Attacks can last from a few hours to 3-4 days, and vary in intensity. It is aggravated by physical activity, which is often impossible. Nausea, vomiting, photophobia and phonophobia are often associated.

What factors can trigger a migraine without aura?

As with all typical migraines, the factors are genetic and/or environmental:

• Sensory stimulation
• Physical activity
• Transportation,
• Fasting or delayed meals
• Certain foods
• Emotions
• Stress
• Too little or too much sleep
• Episodes of fever
• Smoking
• Fatigue

What treatments does Global Medical Institute offer for your migraine without aura?

To treat migraine symptoms, our group focuses on the expression of pain. We rely on the location of the pain's starting point and its irradiation to find the best treatment.

Most often, the pain starts either below the temples, in a spot under the eyes or in the back of the neck.

If you can identify a precise starting point for your pain, it is more likely that the specialists at our Global Medical Institute center will be able to help you treat your symptoms with a minimally invasive surgical procedure.

In a medical treatment, the medications used can be as follows:

Acute treatments:

• Oxygen
• Injectable triptans
• Ergotamine
• Lidocaine

Short-term preventive treatments:

• Corticosteroids

Long-term preventive treatments:

• Verapamil
• Lithium
• Valproic acid
• Other treatments : Over-the-counter creams containing capsaicin
• Gels or creams containing a local anesthetic such as lidocaine
• Pizotifen
• Levetiracetam
• Gabapentin
• Baclofen
• Capsaicin Intranasal
• Melatonin
• Methysergide

Surgical treatment

If we find a precise trigger point for the pain, either temporal, supraorbital or occipital, we can intervene to relieve the pain with minimally invasive surgery.

If, for example, the starting point of the pain corresponds to compressions of the temporal or supraorbital trigeminal nerve, we can perform minimally invasive decompression surgery: the nerve will not be cut or burned. It will be decompressed.

Any contact between the temporal and/or supraorbital trigeminal nerve and blood vessels is relieved. Our surgeries are minimally invasive, with no damage to the nerve.

We can also perform botulinum toxin injections, especially if you are experiencing suborbital or temporal pain.

In our clinic, we systematically interview all our patients. In some cases, the first consultation can take place via teleconsultation. You can then talk to our specialists from the comfort of your own home to find out whether you are a candidate for minimally invasive surgery to relieve your pain.

We rule out other conditions. The theory behind surgery is that some migraines are caused when sensitive nerve branches are squeezed and irritated by structures such as muscles, tendons and blood vessels. Thanks to Botox or botulinum toxin injections, these same muscles, when paralyzed, relieve headaches in some patients for around two-three months.

Taken together, our treatments target the symptoms of migraine – the pain – rather than the migraine or vascular angina itself, which remains largely unknown to this day.