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Best Evidence Topic reports
Sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) block for symptomatic relief of acute migraine
  1. Tom Jaconelli,
  2. Steven Crane
  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, York Hospital, York, North Yorkshire, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Tom Jaconelli; tomjaconelli{at}doctors.org.uk

Abstract

A shortcut review of the literature was conducted to examine whether administering a sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) block provides symptomatic relief in adult patients with acute migraine. 381 papers were found of which 4 included data on patients relevant to the specific clinical question, these are discussed in the paper. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of the best papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that to date there is not enough evidence that a SPG block is likely to provide sustained symptomatic relief of acute migraine in the emergency setting. Further work is needed to establish if it can provide benefit for this patient group.

  • headache
  • neurology
  • headache
  • acute medicine
  • local

https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2024-214272

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Richard Body

    • TJ and SC contributed equally.

    • Contributors Both authors wrote and edited the article, both act as guarantors.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Disclaimer Best Evidence Topic reports (BETs) summarise the evidence pertaining to particular clinical questions. They are not systematic reviews, but rather contain the best (highest level) evidence that can be practically obtained by busy practising clinicians. The search strategies used to find the best evidence are reported in detail in order to allow clinicians to update searches whenever necessary. Each BET is based on a clinical scenario and ends with a clinical bottom line which indicates, in the light of the evidence found, what the reporting clinician would do if faced with the same scenario again. This BET was first published on the BestBETs website at http://www.bestbets.org and has been reproduced with permission.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.