Procedures for acute headache treatment in an emergency room

Abstract

Headache is one of the most common symptoms in the clinical practice and it is responsible for about 9% of the appointments in primary care units and for 1% to 3% in the emergency rooms, leading to a considerable economic impact in the public health care system. Most of the emergency rooms in Brazil does not have drugs, like ergotics compounds and tryptans, used in other countries for the acute treatment of headache. The authors make a review of the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of the acute primary headaches, suggesting protocols for its treatment in an emergency unit.