Pain is more widespread and referred to trigeminal areas in occipital neuralgia

Abstract

Objetctive. Evaluate local and referred pain in occipital neuralgia. Method. Charts review of 32 occipital neuralgia, 16 migraine with­out aura and 102 tension-type headache individuals, respectively. Criteria for craniomandibular disorders, bruxism, headaches. Ques­tionnaires to assess pain sites and descriptors for headaches. Results. Common areas of local/referred pain in occipital neuralgia were the temporal, frontal, occipital, sub-occipital, retro-orbital, cervical and vertex (78.1% cases). Common areas of referred pain in tension-type headache were located in the bilateral temporal and frontal areas (65=63.7%). Other areas of referred pain in tension-type headache were the cervical, vertex, sub-occipital and parietal areas (21.6%). Common areas of local and referred pain in migraine (62.5%) were located in the right anterior temporal area, right anterior temporal, parietal and occipital, left anterior temporal and parietal area, frontal and cervical areas. The median of painful anatomic zones were occipi­tal neuralgia 3.5, tension-type headache 2.0, migraine 2.0; and Con­trols 0.5 (Kruskal-Wallis statistics with post-test p<0.0001). Conclu­sions. Pain in occipital neuralgia was reported in a more widespread anatomic area and in more anatomic zones as compared to migraine and tension-type headache. The latter was reported usually bilaterally in the frontal and temporal areas.