Airplane Descent Headaches

Abstract

Headaches occurring during commercial airplane descent with normal examinations and imaging have been rarely reported. Four cases of airplane descent headaches are described, 3 with new features. CLINICAL HISTORYCase 1.-A 22-year-old male reports headache triggered by descent to land on commercial jet airplanes. The first was 2 years previously where he had identical headaches on descent on the departure and returning flights which were both the same as the most recent. Two weeks previously, he was descending to land when he developed a sudden, shooting, bursting pain in the left temple with a 10/10 intensity at onset without associated nausea, light, or noise sensitivity. There was no ear pressure, popping, or change in hearing. The headache was a 10/10 for about 25 minutes. Upon landing, he took ibuprofen and then the headache was mild with a 5/5 intensity for another 30 minutes. In addition, from the onset of the headache, the neck was For CME, visit

Long-lasting airplane headache in a patient with chronic rhinosinusitis

“…Additional symptoms are rare, although unilateral tearing, nasal congestion and stuffy feeling of the face may be present (2)(3)(4). Physical examination, routine blood tests and head imaging studies are not specific (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6).…”

“…Based on the few reported cases, airplane ascent-and descent-triggered headache is characterized by sudden onset, severe, mainly unilateral pain localized to the orbital, temporal, frontal, sometimes parietal and facial regions; the symptoms rarely last more than 1 h, and the pain is jabbing, stabbing, shooting, bursting, pressing, piercing and sharp in quality (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6). Additional symptoms are rare, although unilateral tearing, nasal congestion and stuffy feeling of the face may be present (2)(3)(4). Physical examination, routine blood tests and head imaging studies are not specific (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6).…”

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“…[3] Daha sonra, benzer semptomlarla tanımlanan olgular literatürde yer almıştır. [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9] 2007 yılında Mainardi ve ark. [1] buna benzer semptomları olan hastalar için tanı kriterlerini oluşturmuşlardır.…”

Physikalische Belastung beim Reisen

“…So können evtl. mögli-che Symptome eines "Jetlag" (tagsüber todmüde, nachts hellwach, Kopfschmerzen, Gereiztheit, Verdauungsstörungen) minimiert werden [11]. Als hilfreich kann sich die Einnahme von Melatonin erweisen [8,18,35] …”