"warming" of sphenopalatine ganglion?
#1
Tue, 22/09/2015 - 13:01
"warming" of sphenopalatine ganglion?
Dear All,
do you know whether the CH treatment of warming the sphenopalatine ganglion is available now in the UK? Here, the ganglion is just warmed up to 42° using to a certain pattern, so it is very minimal invasive.
I know that it is done in Germany (e.g. Munich). Are there any chances that the NHS would cover at least partial costs for such a procedure?
Sorry for the basic questions, I'm still trying to find my way through the NHS...
Andre
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Never heard of that before! Do you have any links to info about it?
H
all i could find was
http://www.achenet.org/resources/the_sphenopalatine_ganglion_spg_and_hea...
Sorry, I don't have any links or alike, but I'm sure there must be something out there. To give you a little bit more background, that's what I know:
The technique is derived from treating backpain, where it is applied since many years (there, nerve cells in the spine are treated). One basically inserts a fine electrode to the ganglion, and then the ganglion is warmed up by RF pulses according to a certain, strictly specified, pattern (something like slowly ramping up to 42° max, several cycles of this). This seems to leave the ganglion intact, but seems to change the way it works (i.e. it conducts signals differently). One indication for this is that some patients who have been pain-free for like 2 years after the surgery had the cluster return (in one case after high fever, as if a reset-button had been pressed). In Munich, they did this on ~20 patients so far, and of course this is too early to make firm scientific conclusions. But initial data suggest a sufficient effectiveness in removing/reducing the headaches. In Germany it is paid by the public health insurance (private costs are roughly around €1.800).
Andre
How interesting. I have close freind who is German. I will get her to go online in her own language and see if she can find SPG warming for CH. If she can she would translate it for us too.
Hi Harrietit I am still waiting from Kings regarding this procedure, I have tried the Prof twice but with no luck
SORRY ABOUT SPELLING YOUR NAME
If you have a friend in Germany/who speaks German, and you are really interested, they might want to contact the following people:
The clinic performing this type of surgery in Munich:
http://www.clinic-dr-decker.de/en/home/
(I've just seen they have an English homepage)
The surgeon (I think that site is availabe only in German):
http://www.clinic-dr-decker.de/de/die-spezialisten/fachbereiche/details/...
And the consulting neurologist (CH specialist):
http://www.neurologie-und-kopfschmerzzentrum.de/dr-med-holger-kaube/
Best wishes,Andre