Microsurgery could end your migraines

SEATTLE – Some doctors are performing a new kind of surgery that could heal migraine headaches for good.

Maria McIntyre works for a company that trains construction workers, but the constant pounding that nagged Maria for years didn’t come from work, it came from her chronic migraines.

Pills only helped a little. Then she found a doctor with a permanent solution.

"It's very cool to help somebody who had pain for 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years," said Georgetown University plastic surgeon Dr. Ivan Ducic. He is one of the few surgeons performing microsurgery for migraines.

He says sometimes a pinched nerve in the head is to blame. What he does is remove a small part of the muscle that is pressing on that nerve.

"The nerve theoretically, after it's been decompressed, should regenerate and clinically then respond to no headaches or at least diminished headaches after the surgery," said Ducic.

That works for about 80 percent of people. For others, a second surgery will remove the nerve completely.

"These nerves have nothing to do with the function of your brain, arms, legs. You can not be paralyzed from them because they're only purely sensory nerves," said Ducic.

Those eligible for the surgery have suffered from migraines for at least six months are seeing a headache specialist and feel tenderness in the back, side and front of the head.

Microsurgery is an outpatient surgery that takes about 90 minutes. Patients usually feel complete relief in about three months.

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