A Review of Episodic and Chronic Pediatric Headaches of Brief Duration

BackgroundHeadaches that last less than an hour in duration are uncommon, except for atypical migraine, and without a practitioner's appropriate knowledge, may result in misdiagnosis. Although most of these headaches are classified as primary headache syndromes, some have secondary etiologies such as structural lesions.MethodsThis pediatric-specific review updates these headache syndromes. Included are atypical migraine, the trigeminal autonomic cephalgias, idiopathic stabbing headache, cranial neuralgias, occipital neuralgia, thunderclap headache, nummular headache, the red ear syndrome, and the numb-tongue syndrome.ConclusionKnowledge of the clinical characteristics of these headache patterns in children allows physicians to quickly establish the headache diagnosis and develop the optimal treatment plan.