Author:
Newman Lawrence C.,Levin Morris,Halker Singh Rashmi B.,Michael Rebecca L.
Abstract
Abstract
This chapter assesses occipital neuralgia (ON), which can occur after posterior head trauma or whiplash, presumably due to the propensity for damage to the relatively superficial greater occipital nerve (GON), which can easily be compressed against the skull. It has been demonstrated that ON occurs more commonly in patients with other coexisting headache disorders. ON presents with stabbing pain in the occipital region as well as tenderness, dysesthesia, or allodynia over the affected nerve branch. Differential diagnosis includes pathology in the region of the upper cervical spine, craniocervical junction, or posterior fossa. The most useful initial treatment of ON is also diagnostic—anesthetic blockade of the GON. If local anesthesia of the GON is effective but pain returns, subsequent GON blocks may prove longer lasting.
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