I have treated quite a few cases of migraines relatively successfully. However with any treatment, there may be patients who will respond little or not at all. Conversely, towards the other end of the spectrum, there will be patients for whom it will be life changing. Today I will share one of those life changing…
Occipital neuralgia is a subtype of headache that affects the back of the head (occipital region). It can present as a sharp piercing pain which can last from seconds to minutes. This can develop into debilitating chronic occipital pain. The cause of occipital neuralgia stems from damage of the greater occipital nerve, lesser occipital nerve…
The term Neurogenic Bladder refers to nerve dysfunction of the bladder. Symptoms can include urinary incontinence, urgency, frequency and overactive bladder. Causes of neurogenic bladder may be from diseases of the central nervous system like strokes, tumours, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, dementia or other neurodegenerative diseases. It may also be from damage to the peripheral…
Bell’s Palsy is a condition of acute onset facial paralysis due to dysfunction of the facial nerve. The presentation is quite confronting and usually patients rightly present to the emergency department worried about a stroke. Scans of the brain will be normal ruling out a stroke and a clinical diagnosis of Bell’s Palsy is made. …
Faecal incontinence is the involuntary loss of faeces aka ‘soiling your pants’. It is one of the more under-recognised conditions due to the taboo nature of poo. Faecal incontinence reduces quality of life – affected patients do not want to go out as they fear soiling themselves and causing embarrassment etc. I noticed a regular…
Cervical radiculopathy is a condition where the nerves coming from the cervical spine becomes pinched. The two most common causes of this are a bulging disc of the cerivcal spine and cervical spine degeneration (aka cervical spondylosis). A 29 year old woman consulted me for 6 months of chronic left arm/neck pain which was due…
A 57 year old lady presents with 2 months of ongoing posterior (behind) knee pain which only came on after she had surgery to remove a large Baker’s cyst which was causing her pain and discomfort. Normally these fluid filled cysts are left alone or just aspirated +/- steroid injection. A Baker’s cyst usually occurs…
