The Reed Procedure® Frequently Asked Questions

• You have 10 or more headache days per month, and
• You have tried at least 6 months of medical management (headache medications) and nothing is working.

In actual practice, the decision of what modality to use in an individual patient — ONS, SONS, or “Combined ON-SONS” — is based on where the patient feels the pain. If the pain is confined to solely the back of the head, then ONS alone should suffice. However, for patients that experience pain over both the back and front of the head, the “Combined ON-SONS” procedure (full Reed Procedure) is recommended.

Dr. Reed was actually the first physician in the world to do both procedures – ONS in 1992 and “Combined ON-SONS” in 2004. As such, he and the other RMC physicians that he personally trained are the world’s most experienced in both ONS and “Combined ON-SONS” (Full Reed Procedure).

And, after over 2 decades of use, the neurostimulator implant procedures that we use are accepted as a standard of care across the medical community, as an “off label” application for chronic head pain.

Further, Medicare and most commercial and national carriers now approve implantable peripheral neurostimulation for various types of chronic head pain and/or headaches. For example, Medicare’s national policy indeed now fully approves implantable neurostimulation for treatment-resistant chronic migraines.

In fact, Dr. Reed published the original paper on the subject in his 1999 publication of “Occipital Nerve Stimulation for Occipital Neuralgia.” That paper started things out, and since Dr. Reed’s original paper, there have been a total of 111 published clinical reports on research conducted by 398 researchers representing 144 research institutions (71 in the US, and 73 from across Europe and elsewhere). You may download the details of the papers and review the researchers and institutions by clicking this link: Reed Procedure Research.

Further, of these authors and institutions, Reed Migraine has taken a leadership position, noting the following landmarks:

Reed published the original paper on “Occipital Nerve Stimulation” (a component of the Reed Procedure) in 1999. All of the other papers follow his original report.
Reed published the original paper on “Combined Occipital and Supraorbital Nerve Stimulation” (the Full Reed Procedure) in 2009.
Reed partnered with several in institutions including the Mayo Clinic SW and Duke Medical Center in the foundational prospective multi-center study on “Occipital Neurostimulation and Chronic Migraine” underwritten by St. Jude Medical and published in 2014.

The International Headache Society comprises top neurology headache specialists from around the world. The journal receives hundreds of original articles each year from top academic centers, including Stanford, Cambridge, and Johns Hopkins.

The significance of the award and the publication of The Reed Procedure® paper, combined with the recognition it received from the medical community, shows the promise this procedure holds for future treatment of head pain.

A Patient Ambassador is a patient who has undergone The Reed Procedure ® and can offer insight to other patients who are thinking about both the trial and permanent implant. Our Patient Ambassador program includes 20 former patients, all of whom have generously volunteered their time to answer questions from patients considering the Reed Procedure and share their own personal experiences with the procedure. You can learn more about our Patient Ambassadors, as well as find their email addresses by viewing our Patient Ambassador Program. We encourage any candidates of The Reed Procedure® to look into this program and hear directly from our former patients about how the Reed Procedure changed their lives.

The Reed Procedure has been demonstrated successful for virtually all types of chronic head pain including:

• Migraine Headaches (all types)
• Chronic Migraine
• Chronic Daily Migraine
• Hemiplegic Migraine
• Migraine with Aura and without Aura
• Refractory Migraine
• Any other type of Migraine Headache
• New Persistent Daily Headache
• Migraine (or any Headache) that occurs after head or neck injury
• Cluster Headache
• Pseudotumor Cerebri (Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus; Elevated Intracranial Pressure)
• Arnold-Chiari Syndrome
• Occipital Neuralgia
• Post-herpetic Neuralgia
• Any other type of Neuralgia of the Face and Head
• Brain Aneurysm

• Diabetes
• Any type of shunt, including “VP Shunt” or spinal fluid shunt
• Have undergone repeated Lumbar Punctures (LPs)
• Aneurysms
• Pseudotumor Cerebri (Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus)
• Seizures
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Nerve Damage
• Had prior surgery on any nerves
• Any type of arthritis, including Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Fibromyalgia
• Have another implanted stimulator, e.g., spinal cord stimulator
• Heart Conditions, including pacemakers

Yes. We have treated many patients with Hemiplegic Migraine, and they have seen excellent results. In addition to reporting relief from their migraines, they also found that the associated hemiplegic weakness or numbness was also relieved. One of our former patients, Kelsey, actually recorded an incredible video of her turning her trial stimulator off and on to demonstrate how effective the stimulator was at treating her hemiplegic migraine. Watch the video of Kelsey to witness the transformative power of the Reed Migraine Procedure in real-time!

With the test stimulator, we implant a temporary unit, much like an IV tube underneath the skin, and leave it in for a few days to see if the patient stops feeling the headaches. If the unit works, it does so both dramatically and immediately. The patient returns to the office three to seven days later and tells us if it worked. The trial is a medical procedure performed in the outpatient setting at the hospital and takes 15 minutes. During this completely painless procedure, the patient is given an IV sedative, and once asleep, a tiny IV tube is placed above each eyebrow, and two more are placed in the back of the head. No incision is made during the trial. When the patient wakes up, they have tape over the upper eyebrow area and small wires sticking out from underneath that plug into a battery box located outside of the body. Once in the recovery room, a representative from Reed Migraine Centers will turn on the system, and the patient will begin to feel a mild, tingling sensation in the forehead, as well as in the back of the head. The patient will then go home wearing the temporary unit for three to seven days. Typically, the effects are dramatic, and the patient will know whether or not the procedure will work right away with a high degree of certainty. The patient returns after the trial period, and the temporary unit is removed. If the patient does not see a dramatic change in their headaches, the patient is not a candidate for The Reed Procedure®. If the trial stimulator does work, the patient moves forward with a permanent stimulator implant scheduled within a couple of weeks from the trial date. We are highly confident that the permanent stimulator will work effectively on patients who have a successful trial.

There are commonly no cosmetic side effects. In general, friends and family cannot tell that the patient has a unit implanted. Physical limitations are practically non-existent in our patients. In fact, the exact opposite has been found to be true. Having the unit implanted and no longer having to deal with chronic headaches allows our patients to feel liberated. They can now do things they couldn’t do before like go outside, enjoy physical activity, and eat trigger foods that they couldn’t before after having the permanent procedure.

No, there are absolutely no issues. The TSA screeners are very experienced in working with travelers who have implants (pacemakers, implanted stimulators, etc.). They are able to scan (or “hand wand”) for these without difficulty. Additionally, all patients have a card that they can carry identifying them as having an implanted neurostimulator; however, even without the card, there is no problem at all with TSA screening.

As we see patients from across North America, the majority of our patients do come from “out of town.” The trial procedure may be performed at any of our locations, but the permanent procedure must be performed in Dallas, TX. As such, we have developed a smooth process to accomplish our goal of getting your headaches under control that involves 2 separate trips:

• Trip 1: This trip is for placement of the Trial Stimulator, and it requires you to stay in a hotel for 2 nights. You may have the trial procedure performed at any of our locations. After these first 2 days, you may return to your hometown for the remainder of the trial. Any nurse or physician in your hometown can easily remove the trial stimulator in their office.
• Trip 2. This is for the placement of the Permanent Stimulator, and it requires you to stay in a Dallas, TX hotel for 3 nights. The permanent procedure must be performed in Dallas, TX. After placement of the permanent unit, there is generally no need for any planned further trips to Dallas, as your local physician can handle everything from there. Once the unit is implanted and has healed, there is typically no reason to see a physician. That is one of the many beauties of an implanted stimulator – you simply do not need to go back and forth to the doctor’s office. Now, we are available 24/7 should you have any questions or issues, but barring something very unusual and unexpected, there will be simply no reason to return.