Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Roderick C Spears.
This paper reports a case of hemicrania continua in which attacks were successfully eliminated while taking melatonin 7 mg at bedtime after the patient was no longer able to tolerate indomethacin due to gastrointestinal side effects.
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Colloid cysts of the third ventricle are rare intracranial tumors, accounting for 0.5% of intracranial tumors. Colloid cysts represent 2% of gliomas, are more common in men than women, and usually are diagnosed between the third and fifth decades of life. The primary presenting complaint of this disorder is headache. The headaches are described as intermittent, severe and intense, and of short duration and usually are located frontally. The main associated features are nausea and vomiting. The headache can be relieved by lying down, which is unusual for headaches secondary to intracranial tumors. Colloid cysts of the third ventricle are diagnosed by computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and treatment is surgical. This rare type of headache disorder is significant because it is associated with sudden death. Recognition of the unusual features of colloid cyst headache may result in decreased mortality in this disorder.
Hemicrania continua (HC) is an uncommon, primary headache disorder characterized by a continuous unilateral headache of moderate intensity with superimposed exacerbations of more severe pain. HC exists in two temporal subtypes, a continuous form in which headaches persist continuously without remission periods, and a less common remitting form in which bouts of continuous headaches are separated by pain-free remissions. There have been more than 100 prior reports of HC; in the majority of which the headache is strictly unilateral and without side shift. We now report the third patient in whom headaches alternated sides during different attacks.
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