Greater Occipital Nerve Pulsed Radiofrequency in Cervicogenic Headache (GONPRFCEH)

February 26, 2026 updated by: Ülkü Sabuncu, Ankara City Hospital Bilkent

Efficacy of Greater Occipital Nerve Pulsed Radiofrequency Treatment at C2 Level in Cervicogenic Headache

The effect of GON PRF treatment applied with USG-guided proximal technique in patients who do not respond to conservative treatments for cervicogenic headache

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

In this study, GON PRF will be applied to paticipants who are diagnosed with cervicogenic headache according to ICHD-3 criteria, who meet the study criteria and who report a positive effect with diagnostic GON block application. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided C2 level greater occipital nerve pulsed radiofrequency treatment in cervicogenic headache during the follow-up period.Secondary purpose is to determine the effects of the GON PRF treatment applied on the volunteers' analgesic drug consumption, daily life activities and sleep, how they generally perceive this treatment and whether there is a need for any additional treatment.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

25

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Turkey (Türkiye)
    • Cankaya
      • Ankara, Cankaya, Turkey (Türkiye), 06800
        • Health Sciences University, Ankara Bilkent City Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosed with cervicogenic headache according to ICHD-3 criteria
  • Cranial and cervical spine imaging is available
  • Number of headache days per month 5 and/or more
  • Inadequate benefit from pharmacological treatments or physical therapy methods used
  • Volunteer patients who can understand and approve the treatment and the informed consent form and who can comply with the treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of secondary headache other than cervicogenic headache according to ICHD-3 criteria
  • Cervical nerve root irritation and/or spinal stenosis symptoms and signs
  • Sensory deficit findings in the greater occipital nerve dermatome
  • Craniocervical defect or other anatomical abnormality in the target area or nearby the procedure
  • Local or systemic infection
  • Received nonpharmacological treatment within the last 3 months (physical therapy, botulinum toxin A, acupuncture, ozone, cognitive behavioral therapy, etc.)
  • Pregnancy or suspected pregnancy
  • Known allergy to local anesthetic drugs
  • History of malignancy
  • Known organic disease of the brain and spinal cord
  • History of cranial/cervical surgery within the last 1 year
  • Bleeding-clotting disorder or oral anticoagulant use
  • Comorbid disease that may cause headache (uncontrolled hypertension, intracranial lesion, etc.)
  • Compliance with treatment and treatment results diseases that may affect the evaluation (psychiatric disorder, dementia, etc.)
  • Those who request re-treatment due to the emergence of contralateral pain or other types of pain during the follow-up period after treatment
  • Those who do not accept treatment

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Clinical data of the patients before and after treatment will be compared

According to the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD)-III diagnostic criteria, patients diagnosed with cervicogenic headache will undergo a proximal technique C2 level greater occipital nerve (GON) diagnostic block under ultrasound (USG) guidance, and patients with a positive response (≥50% reduction in pain or positive effect) will receive GON-PRF treatment with the same technique.

This study mainly aims to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of GON PRF treatment applied at the C2 level under USG guidance in cervicogenic headache during the follow-up period.

Our secondary aim is to determine the effects of the GON PRF treatment we applied on the analgesic drug consumption, daily life activities and sleep of the volunteers, how they generally perceive this treatment and whether there is a need for any additional treatment.
Procedure: GONPRF
GON PRF treatment, which we apply by imaging the target nerve and surrounding structures with the proximal technique (at C2 level) under USG guidance in patients who do not respond to conservative treatments for cervicogenic headache.
Procedure: Proximal GONPRF
Ultrasound-guided pulsed radiofrequency treatment of the greater occipital nerve at the C2 level

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Visual Analog Scale
Time Frame: 3 months
Average headache severity, maximum headache severity, number of headache days (monthly) measured with a visual analog scale (VAS; 10-point VAS scoring, 0 being no pain and 10 being the highest pain intensity that can be tolerated)
3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Ankara City Hospital Bilkent

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 2, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 2, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

January 8, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 2, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 26, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • E1-23-3686
  • turkısh health ministry (Other Identifier: Bilkent Ankara City Hospital)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

I dont want to.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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