UF to Lead National Trial Testing Nerve Block to Alleviate Headache from Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

A multidisciplinary team of neurocritical care, neurosurgery and pain medicine investigators from the University of Florida has been awarded a $12.9 million National Institutes of Health grant to test a novel way to relieve pain from sudden, excruciating headaches stemming from a burst brain aneurysm that causes bleeding.

The UF Health team will lead a 12-site national clinical trial this fall to test a nerve block procedure as an alternative to opioid medications to treat severe headaches caused by subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of bleeding that irritates the lining of the brain after an aneurysm ruptures. This nerve block procedure already is commonly used at UF Health for pain relief from complex facial surgeries in adults and children and to treat other headache disorders, such as migraines.

Combining expertise from neurology, neurocritical care, neurosurgery, anesthesia and acute and perioperative pain medicine, the team is poised to run the first interventional therapeutic trial for headaches in subarachnoid hemorrhage and neurocritical care.

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