We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Below we will list the departments and units that form part of Vall d’Hebron Hospital and the main diseases that we treat. We will also make recommendations based on advice backed up by scientific evidence that has been shown to be effective in guaranteeing well-being and quality of life.
Vols saber com serà la teva estada a l’Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron? Aquí trobaràs tota la informació.
When post-COVID-19 headache lasts for a month, there is a 50% change of it continuing for the next nine months.
La journal Cephalalgia, the official publication of the International Headache Society, has just released the results of a study performed by members of the Spanish Society of Neurology's Headache Study Group (SEN), which includes researchers from the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) Headache and Neurological Pain Group, who analysed the course of over 900 Spanish patients with COVID-19 who suffered headache as a symptom of the disease. The study found that nearly 20 percent of patients who experience headache during the acute phase of COVID-19 go on to develop chronic daily headache.
According to Dr David García Azorín, co-author of the study and spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), “Headache is a frequent symptom in COVID-19 and among people who have recovered from the disease, yet little research has been carried out to understand the long-term course of this symptom. This is why we conducted this study, which included over 900 patients from 6 Spanish hospitals, and monitored their course over nine months.”
Out of all the patients included in the study, nearly half had no previous history of headache and although its average duration was two weeks, in approximately 50% of the patients it became persistent and daily, lasting three months in 19% of patients and nine months in 16%. In addition, the intensity of the headache during the acute phase of COVID-19 was associated with longer persistence.
As Dr Jesús Porta Etassam, co-author of the study and Vice-president of the SEN notes, “We saw that in the cases where headache lasts for more than two months, it is quite likely to persist over time. Furthermore, when the headache persists for a month, there is a 50% chance that it will continue for the next nine months. This shows the importance of early assessment of patients with persistent headache after COVID-19.”
According to Dr Patricia Pozo Rosich, co-author of the study, section head of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital Neurology Department and head of the Vall d’Hebron Migraine Adaptive Brain Center, “We are convinced that if this symptom is approached correctly in patients from the start, many problems with its chronification could be avoided. As it is, there are currently no specific therapies, so most physicians treat post-COVID-19 headache based on its similarity to other primary headaches. Bearing in mind the impact of headache on patients’ quality of life, controlled studies on possible treatments and their efficacy are urgently needed.”
Another of conclusion from the study is that greater frequency means that patients with persistent headache after nine months have symptoms similar to migraine. Such patients are also mostly elderly, most often women, who have had pneumonia less frequently during COVID-19, while their headache is slightly more intense, throbbing, accompanied by photophobia/sonophobia and deterioration in physical activity.
If this symptom is approached correctly in patients from the start, many problems with its chronification could be avoided.
Neurology, General Hospital
Select the newsletter you want to receive:
By accepting these conditions, you are agreeing to the processing of your personal data for the provision of the services requested through this portal, and, if necessary, for any procedures required by the administrations or public bodies involved in this processing, and their subsequent inclusion in the aforementioned automated file. You may exercise your rights to access, rectification, cancellation or opposition by writing to web@vallhebron.cat, clearly stating the subject as "Exercising of Data Protection Rights". Operated by: Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron - Institut Català de la Salut. Purpose: Manage the user’s contact information. Legitimisation: Express acceptance of the privacy policy. Rights: To access, rectify, and delete personal information data, as well to the portability thereof and to limit and/or oppose their use. Source: The interested party themselves.