Key points from today’s guests:

Dr. Sean Kumer, associate chief medical officer, VP, Perioperative and Procedural Services, The University of Kansas Health System

• As a side note to our topic on migraines, we wanted to share an update on the transplant count.
• In calendar year 2024, there have been:
  • 91 total transplants
  • 14 heart transplants
  • 23 liver transplants
  • 54 kidney transplants
  • April has been especially busy as we've done 24 transplants in just the first 16 days of the month.
  • My partners have been extremely busy helping patients so we thank them as well as the transplant nurses, medical lab professionals, and neurodiagnostic techs as we celebrate them this week.
  • We want to thank all those people and for all the work they do in the weeks and months and before for every transplant and for every single patient as they usher them through a very difficult time in their lives.
  • Now onto migraines. There are millions of migraine sufferers, but one patient has found relief thanks to a new kind of surgery.

Sara Lamb, had migraine surgery

• Sara had lived with severe headaches and migraines her entire life.
• They accelerated after cancer treatments with intensity and frequency.
• The pain started between her eyes and spread to the entire side of her head.
• When the migraines were so bad it affected her driving, she decided to have migraine relief surgery five months ago.
• She started to feel fully normal within a couple of weeks since the surgery.
• The surgery has made a significant difference in migraine frequency and intensity.
• Sara encourages others to be an advocate for themselves so they can get a better quality of life.

Dr. David Megee, plastic surgeon, The University of Kansas Health System

• For this migraine surgery, the patient needs to be under the care of a neurologist and needs to have been evaluated to make sure there aren't any other reasons for them to be having pain.
• Botox reaction is a good indicator of surgery success. We paralyze the muscles that are irritating some peripheral nerves and if we demonstrate that those nerves after we've kind of quieted down the muscle that's irritating them do better, the expectation is that by decompressing that nerve by taking pressure off that nerve, we can decrease the frequency and the intensity of the headaches the patients experiencing.
• There are also some pain-improving properties that Botox seems to have that we are still trying to understand better.
• The surgery involves making an incision in the upper eyelid to relieve pressure on nerves in the forehead, very much like doing a carpal tunnel release in somebody's wrist where we take pressure off the nerve in the wrist to help with sensation in the in the hand and the fingers.
• The surgery creates more room in the skull so that the nerve comes out through the bone.
• Some patients can have some rebound headaches right after surgery just because of the surgical activities, but a within a few days, patients should be able to notice a positive difference
• Here in Kansas City, we are doing this migraine relief surgery fairly routinely, but we also recognize that there are a lot more patients out there who are having difficulty getting access because they don't know about it.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System

• The hospital COVID count for this week is at eight patients, which is a decrease from 12 patients last week.
• Respiratory viral season officially ended April 1. Overall, the national rates of influenza are going down.
• For most people, the pandemic is over for them but we have to remember those certain populations where it is a very real disease and can cause significant morbidity and mortality.
• A recent study looked at the impact of antibiotics on coughs and found that those people who got antibiotics did not experience reduced symptoms of cough as far as severity and duration.
• I think we have to understand that if you do have a cough, it doesn't really necessarily mean that you have a bacterial infection that require antibiotics.

Thursday, April 18 at 8 a.m. is the next All Things Heart. A new mom went from spending a morning snuggling with her baby to the emergency department and a stunning diagnosis. Learn more about her story.

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