Research article

Enucleation and development of cluster headache: a retrospective study

Peter Sörös^1,3 , Oanh Vo¹ , Heinrich Gerding² , Ingo W Husstedt¹ and Stefan Evers¹

¹  Department of Neurology, Münster University Hospital, Albert-Schweizer-Strasse 33, 48149 Münster, Germany

²  Department of Ophthalmology, Münster University Hospital, Domagkstrasse 15, 48149 Münster, Germany

³  Department of Imaging Research, Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada

author email corresponding author email

BMC Neurology 2005, 5:6doi:10.1186/1471-2377-5-6

Published:	22 March 2005

Abstract

Background

Cluster headache (CH) is a neurovascular, primary headache disorder. There are, however, several case reports about patients whose CH started shortly after a structural brain disease or trauma. Motivated by a patient who developed CH 3 weeks after the removal of an eye and by similar case reports, we tested the hypothesis that the removal of an eye is a risk factor for CH.

Methods

A detailed headache questionnaire was filled out by 112 patients on average 8 years after enucleation or evisceration of an eye.

Results

While 21 % of these patients experienced previously unknown headaches after the removal of an eye, no patient fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for CH.

Conclusion

Our data does not suggest that the removal of an eye is a major risk factor for the development of CH.