Headache in Patients With Neck-Shoulder-Arm Pain of Cervical Radicular Origin

In a series of 81 patients with chronic cervicobrachialgia, 54 (67%) reported that they also suffered from recurrent headache. Forty‐four (81%) of these patients were classified as having cervical headache, 5 as having migraine, 2 with tension‐type headache, and 3 patients were not classifiable according to the diagnostic system of the International Headache Society (IHS). Patients with headache presented significantly higher tenderness scores and pain intensity in the neck‐shoulder‐arm region than patients without headaches. Twenty‐three (52%) of the 44 patients with cervical headache reported that their headache had improved after treatments directed towards their cervicobrachialgia. The IHS classification system of cervical headache is discussed.