Pain Treatment in Chiari
Unfortunately, persistent pain after surgery is not uncommon with Chiari patients. While we, as a Foundation, are working to ensure Chiari patients receive a treatment to cure their symptoms, we are not 100% there yet.
In the meantime, Dr. Xiang Qian, specializes in pain management, focusing on the not-so-popular topic of "headache". Dr. Qian presents a few Chiari-related cases. He shows patients who have undergone treatments for their headaches and other symptoms including decompression surgery and motor cortex stimulator implantations (MCS), which proved unsuccessful. Dr. Qian speaks in depth about treatments including some pharmacological but mainly focusing on neuromodulation to relieve headache and facial pain.
The C2 Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) is the principal nerve root that contributes to the greater and lesser occipital nerves
Targeted at migraine patients, he suggests this may be a viable treatment for those with Chiari that have headaches with migrainous features - C2 DRG Peripheral Nerve Stimulator (PNS) neuromodulation
With so the varying symptoms of Chiari patients, including types of headaches, Dr. Qian developed an interest in looking at the mechanism: transient intracranial pressure elevation with consecutive affection of trigeminal afferents of the meninges, resulting in vasodilation and headache.