Via practica 6/2013

Acute headache

Acute headaches are mostly a symptom of primary headache disorders without any clear underlying cause. The most common primary headache disorders are migraine, tension-type headache and cluster headache. Secondary headaches are symptoms of a certain structural lesion or organic disorder intracranially or extracranially. Secondary headaches are caused by numerous underlying disorders, including subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, epidural and subdural hematoma, primary cerebral tumours, metastases and neuroinfections. These disorders are health or life threatening, and early diagnosis and prompt treatment are needed. Evaluation of warning signals (red flags) is very important in differential diagnosis of secondary headache disorders. The paper focuses on basic principles in diagnosis and treatment of primary and secondary headache disorders.

Keywords: acute headache, primary headache disorders, secondary headache disorders, warning signals (red flags), diagnosis, treatment.