ABSTRACT
Post-traumatic headache, a new secondary headache that arises after head injury, is often a part of the post-traumatic syndrome. It can follow a mild-to-moderate closed head injury even when the patient has experienced no loss of consciousness. The International Headache Society (IHS) criteria for post-traumatic headache are not primarily concerned with the headache's clinical features, but with the temporal relationship of the headache to the trauma. Non-specific dizziness and episodic and positional vertigo are commonly associated with post-traumatic headache. Age, gender, and certain mechanical factors are risks for a poor outcome after head injury or whiplash injury. Peripheral nerve injury may result in neuropathic pain; soft tissue or skeletal injuries may initiate or trigger chronic daily headache; and injury to the neck, jaw and tissues of the scalp cause pain that is referred into the head. The electroencephalography (EEG) is usually of little value in evaluating post-traumatic headache.
