Vascular facial pain

Vascular facial pain is a migraine that affects the temporal and supraorbital areas.

It is a headache characterized by extremely severe, strictly unilateral, predominantly periorbital pain, evolving in daily attacks lasting from 15 to 180 minutes, occurring on average one to three times a day.

What defines this migraine? How does it appear? What causes it? What are the symptoms of vascular facial pain? And what treatments does our Global Medical Institute groupin Lausanne offer to reduce or even eliminate the symptoms of vascular facial pain?

In reading these few lines, we’d like you to find out more about facial vascular facial pain, so that you can make a free and informed choice.

Above all, we want you to understand our treatments and the importance of pain localization.

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

The importance of localizing vascular pain

At our Global Medical Institute center, we make a point of informing each and every one of our patients about the importance of localizing their pain. Pain is the main symptom of your migraines, and it can be treated.

Indeed, if you can locate the starting point of your pain expression, our practitioners will be able to help you,relieve the pain associated with your migraines, whether temporal, occipital or frontal.

At our Global Medical Institute center, we focus first and foremost on the starting point of the pain, before proposing any medical or surgical treatment.

By focusing on the location of the pain, we increase our chances of treating your symptoms. That is why it is so important for you to be able to locate it.

Sometimes a teleconsultation can help identify pain that can be treated by our specialists.

All our patients tend to get lost in the different types of migraines, names, definitions and so on. It's important to know which type of migraine you're suffering from. Neurologists are the doctors who specialize in the classification and treatment of migraines with medication. Our specialists focus on the expression of pain associated with your migraines and can guide you in understanding whether the pain associated with your migraines can be relieved by minimally invasive surgery.

Migraines are not easily defined, and there are many different types.

The only point to focus on is the location of the pain’s starting point. Based on this location, we’ll be able to help you decide whether the pain is frontal, occipital or temporal, and whether it can be relieved by minimally invasive surgery.

What is facial vascular pain?

Vascular facial pain is a form of migraine characterized by pain in the periorbital, temporal and malar (facial) areas, strictly unilateral, and accompanied by the following symptoms: lacrimation, rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, sweating localized to the face, conjunctival injection, miosis.

Vascular facial pain particularly affects people between the ages of 20 and 50. Men, especially smokers, are more likely to be affected.

Painful attacks generally occur 2-3 times a day.

What causes vascular migraine?

There is no recognized cause for vascular facial pain. However, depending on activities and lifestyle, the disease can develop to a greater or lesser extent.

As previously mentioned, smokers are at greater risk of developing vascular facial pain.

The potential existence of a genetic factor has also been studied. It has been found that if a family member suffers from vascular pain, the risk of developing the condition is increased.

If the pain originates in the temples (the small artery that pulses at the temples) or the supraorbital area (the inner part of the eyebrow or eye socket), our specialists at the Global Medical Institute can help you relieve it.

What are the symptoms of vascular facial pain?

First of all, it is important to know that symptoms can be exacerbated under certain conditions: alcohol consumption, exposure to strong odors, and so on.

Vascular facial pain manifests itself in short, intense attacks of pain, separated by asymptomatic intervals.

Pain is strictly unilateral on the same side throughout the painful episode, and more often than not from one episode to the next, and of short duration (between 15 and 180 minutes), accompanied by vegetative signs.

Pain is most intense in the orbital region, but may radiate as far as the shoulder. When very severe, the pain can be likened to grinding or excruciating burning.

The pain is accompanied by lacrimation, rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, sweating of the face, conjunctival injection, miosis and even palpebral edema.

What treatments does Global Medical Institute offer for the symptoms of vascular facial pain?

To treat the symptoms of vascular facial pain, 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, pain starts either below the temples or in a spot under the eyes.

If you can identify a precise starting point for your pain, it's more likely that the specialists at our Global Medical Institute can 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
• Triptans injection
• Ergotamine
• Lidocaine - cocaine
• 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
• Intranasal capsaicin
• Melatonin
• Methysergide

Surgical treatment

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

If the starting point of the pain corresponds to compression 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 will be 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 telemedicine. 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 facial pain itself, which remains largely unknown to this day.