HEADACHE PROFILE AND ASSOCIATED SYMPTOMS IN INTRACRANIAL TUMORS

Adhitya Riski Apriady,Asep Nugraha Hermawan,Yusuf Wibisono

doi:10.55047/comorbid.v1i1.36

Abstract

 Intracranial tumors are rare in headache sufferers, although headache is common in intracranial tumor patients. This limits the utility of headache symptoms to make a diagnosis, and it's crucial to know whether people with intracranial tumors have specific headache criteria. Other investigations do not support the classic criteria for headache in intracranial tumors, such as progressive, worse in the morning, and exacerbated by Valsalva maneuvers. Clinical studies found that headache as the sole symptom was rare, and only occurred in 2% of patients, hence this study also investigated the prevalence of nausea/vomiting, seizures, loss of consciousness, and motor deficits. This study uses resumes of medical records of patients diagnosed with intracranial tumors and hospitalized in the Department of Neurology, dr. Hasan Sadikin Central General Hospital West Java, Indonesia. While the sampling method in this study was total sampling, by taking all medical record resumes of patients with intracranial tumors from January to December 2018. Headache was a prevalent symptom of intracranial tumors in this study, occurring in 75,3 % of the subjects and was usually accompanied by other symptoms, especially motor deficits (64,5%), loss of consciousness (60,2%), nausea and vomiting (31) 2%), and seizures (23,7%). Patients were most likely to have bilateral headaches (62,5%), and 63,6% of patients who had unilateral headaches had a unilateral intracranial tumor on the same side of the headache. Patients who experienced progressive headaches were 93,5% of patients. While, the most common headache onset in patients with intracranial tumors before hospital admission were; 3-30 days (40,4%) and > 30 days - 6 months (38,5%).            

Highlights

Patients with intracranial tumors are more likely to experience headaches, with prevalence rates ranging from 32.2% to 71% (Nelson & Taylor, 2014)
The classic criteria for headache in intracranial tumors mentioned in International Classification of Headache Disorders-3 (ICHD-III) describes headaches that are usually progressive, worse in the morning, and exacerbated by Valsalva-like maneuvers, caused by one or more intracranial tumors (Arnold, 2018)
This paper investigated into the prevalence of nausea/vomiting, seizures, loss of consciousness, and motor deficits

Summary

Introduction

Patients with intracranial tumors are more likely to experience headaches, with prevalence rates ranging from 32.2% to 71% (Nelson & Taylor, 2014). The significance of headache symptoms in making a diagnosis is limited, and it is vital to determine if patients with intracranial tumors have unique criteria for headaches (Taylor, 2014). S. and Taylor LP (2014) found the classic criteria headache in this intracranial tumor is rare (Nelson & Taylor, 2014). Valentinis L. et al (2010) found that only 5.1% of patients met the three “classic criteria”; the ICHD criteria may have missed the criteria for headache due to brain tumors (Nelson & Taylor, 2014; Valentinis et al, 2009)

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