WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Implant helps migraine sufferers

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - November 14, 2011

If you suffer from migraine headaches or know someone who does, you know just how debilitating they can be, but a small device is offering relief for many who have tried everything else.

Ron Riegner started getting migraine headaches in his twenties. The pain became unbearable as he got older. "Two days a week I would be in bed. I wouldn't be able to listen to anything, wouldn't be able to see anything," he said.

But Riegner is now back running the family business and pain free because of
a tiny electronic stimulator. The battery powered device--sort of like a pacemaker--is implanted under Riegner's skin. Two wires run to the back of his neck, sending signals through his skull to the nerves in his brain -- in effect --turning off the migraine before it starts.

Riegner is one of dozens of severe sufferers who tried the device in a clinical trial. Doctor Stephen Silberstein, the Director of the Jefferson Headache Center, says the results are encouraging. "We had people who've had this who had no life, they couldn't leave the house, they couldn't work, and they've got their function back, they've got their life back," he said.

It's estimated 40-million Americans suffer from migraine headaches. Up to 4-percent of those adults have headaches 15 or more days a month.

Migraines are still a medical mystery.

"We do know it runs in families. It may be due to a hyper sensitive brain, but we are searching for the answers," Dr. Silberstein said.

Medications can help, but for Riegner, nothing worked until the implant, that switches on every morning. "I can't say how much it's changed my life," he said.

He says he's now happy just to go to work everyday.

Manuel Gallegus - CBS News