Microinjections of botulinum toxin to treat severe chronic migraine: an approach that has become possible in France.
This article is taken from the monthly magazine Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche n°927, dated May 2024.
Around thirty micro-injections of botulinum toxin to treat severe chronic migraine. Today, this approach has become possible in France, the famous toxin having finally obtained, ten years after our European neighbors, marketing authorization with reimbursement in a very specific indication: chronic migraine. These are precisely headaches present at least fifteen days per month, eight of which have migraine peaks, which could not be relieved by basic treatments.
Reduction of wrinkles and… migraines
This approach would not exist if Dr. William Binder, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills (United States) in the 1990s, had not listened to his patients, delighted with the reduction in their wrinkles and… their migraines, because this is how the link was made and the studies began.
Today, “we know that botulinum toxin has the ability to block the release of a protein neurotransmitter, CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide), secreted in excessive quantities by migraine sufferers, responsible for vasodilation of the arteries and pain “, explains Dr Éléna Kereun, algologist (Bouchard clinic, Marseille) in an episode of “Let’s free ourselves from pain”, a podcast hosted by her neurosurgeon colleague Dr Marc Levêque.
In practice, a doctor trained in the technique performs around thirty intramuscular injections spread over seven areas of the head and neck (forehead, temples, neck, etc.). Day hospitalization is necessary, but it only lasts about thirty minutes.
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