Pediatric Headaches: One year of Observation from A Tertiary Center

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the demographic, clinical features of children and adolescents with headaches which is one of the most common reason for referral to pediatric neurology clinics in addition to elucidating the frequency of primary and secondary headaches as well as their management. Material and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical reports of children and adolescents who were referred to Ankara City Hospital, Department of Pediatric Neurology between December 2019 and December 2020. Results: During the study period, 236 (86.8%) children, and adolescents were diagnosed with primary headaches and 36 (13.2%) were diagnosed with secondary headaches. Tension headaches were the most frequent (71.2%) type of primary headaches while headache or facial pain attributed to disorders of the cranium, neck, eyes, ears, nose, sinuses, teeth, mouth or other facial or cervical structure were the most frequent (38.8%) type of secondary headaches. All patients with secondary headaches had at least one red flag while 23 (63.8%) patients had 2 or more red flags. Magnetic resonance imaging was diagnostic in 58.3% of the patients while EEG was diagnostic in 6% of the patients. Conclusion: Pediatric patients presenting with headaches should be carefully examined to diagnose and treat the causes of secondary headaches which can be life-threatening and require urgent treatment. On the other hand, accurate diagnosis is very important in primary headaches which constitute more than 80% of all headaches and have detrimental effects on life quality as a result of refraining from daily activities.