Diagnostic delay and suboptimal management in a referral population with hemicrania continua.

Aim Of The Study: To investigate a clinical population of patients with hemicrania continua (HC), looking at the diagnostic problems they have encountered and their use of healthcare resources and at issues relating to the effectiveness of treatments.

Materials And Methods: We directly interviewed 25 patients fulfilling the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd edition diagnostic criteria for HC selected among 1612 subjects attending the INI Grottaferrata Headache Clinic over a 3-year period.

Results: No patient had received a correct diagnosis before being seen at our headache clinic.

Is hemicrania continua a single entity or the association of two headache forms? Considerations from a case report.

Hemicrania continua (HC) belongs to the group of primary headaches and it is characterized by a strictly unilateral, continuous headache of moderate intensity, with superimposed exacerbations of severe intensity that are accompanied by trigeminal autonomic features. The syndrome is completely responsive to indomethacin. Here we report a case of a 49-year-old man with HC, which may be viewed as a combination of different types of headache, ie, chronic tension-type headache and trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia.