Background:
Current recommended treatment options for primary headache disorders are suboptimal in that effective pain relief is untimely and associated with side effects.
Objective:
The primary aim of this thesis was to evaluate the effectiveness and attitudes towards an alternative treatment option, the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) block which belongs to a class of procedures known as peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs).
Methods:
We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis studying the effectiveness of PNBs for the treatment of primary headache disorders. We also conducted a national postal survey among Canadian emergency physicians to identify current practice patterns and perspectives on PNBs.
Results:
We found PNBs are effective for rapid pain relief compared to placebo at 15 minutes (MD = -1.17; 95% CI: -1.82 to -0.51) and 30 minutes (MD = -0.99; 95% CI: -1.66 to -0.32). Only 55.6% of physicians have experience with PNBs (95% CI: 0.48 to 0.65) and we discovered the SPG block is the least commonly practiced type of PNB; the majority of physicians believe these procedures are safe (85%) and effective (55.1%). A future trial is needed to compare the SPG block against standard treatment.
Conclusion:
The SPG block may be used as an adjunct therapy for faster effective pain relief. Current physicians would consider PNBs as a first-line alternative given evidence from a future trial. A future trial is needed to compare the SPG block against standard treatment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/43393 |
| Date | 18 March 2022 |
| Creators | Patel, Dilan |
| Contributors | Perry, Jeffrey J., Taljaard, Monica |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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