GON block with bupivacaine not superior to metoclopramide for migraine treatment: Study

USA: Greater occipital nerve blocks (GONB) with bupivacaine is not effective as IV metoclopramide for the first-line migraine treatment in the emergency department (ED), suggests a recent study in the journal Headache.

GONB are increasingly been used for the treatment of acute migraine. Benjamin W. Friedman, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore, Bronx, NY, USA, and colleagues conducted a double‐dummy, double‐blind, parallel‐arm, non‐inferiority randomized controlled trial in 2 EDs to determine whether GONB was as effective as intravenous metoclopramide for migraine.

The researchers screened 1358 patients for participation, of those 99 were included. 99 patients with migraine of moderate or severe intensity were randomized to receive bilateral GONB with each side administered 3 mL of bupivacaine 0.5% (n=51) or metoclopramide 10 mg IV (n=48), the putative standard of care. They were followed for over a 2.5‐year of the study period. 

The primary outcome was improvement in pain on a 0‐10 scale between time 0 and 1 hour later. Secondary outcomes included sustained headache relief, defined as achieving and maintaining for 48 hours a headache level of mild or none without the use of additional analgesic medication, and the use of rescue medication in the ED.