Migraine Surgery: Assessment of the Prevalence and Surgical Outcomes of Different Trigger Sites

Migraine surgery is primarily indicated for patients with chronic migraine who are refractory to conventional pharmacological treatments. The procedure aims to deactivate peripheral trigger sites—anatomical zones where migraines can be triggered by nerve compression and irritation. The most common trigger areas are the frontal, occipital, and temporal. This review seeks to analyse the prevalence of treatment and corresponding success rates for these three main trigger sites. A systematic review was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane in November 2025 using the keyword “Migraine Surgery”. The study followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines. After applying exclusion criteria and removing duplicates, 270 records were identified, and 62 full-text articles were assessed. Five retrospective studies published between 2012 and 2024 were included, totaling 2,253 patients. Of these, 907 cases involved frontal migraine, 1,049 occipital migraine, and 1,038 temporal migraine. Reported improvement rates ranged from 87-90% for frontal, 81-95% for occipital, and 86-88% for temporal triggers. Follow-up durations ranged from 3 months to 6 years. Trigger-specific surgical interventions for frontal, occipital, and temporal migraine show consistently high rates of clinical improvement, supporting their role as viable treatment options for selected patients. Although constrained by the retrospective nature of the studies, heterogeneity designs, and variable durations of follow-up, these findings assist in underscoring the potential effectiveness migraine surgery can offer. Further prospective studies with standardized methodologies are warranted to validate these outcomes and optimize patient selection criteria.