Atrium Medical Centre, The Netherlands.
Cephalalgia. 2012 Sep;32(12):932-9. doi: 10.1177/0333102412452044. Epub 2012 Jul 6.
Oxygen has been a generally accepted treatment method for cluster headache attacks ever since Kudrow (1981) conducted a controlled trial showing that oxygen was equally or even more effective than ergotamine injections.
The aim of the present study was to provide a historical perspective of oxygen treatment in cluster headache and to find the origin of this treatment. Oxygen for cluster headache was first described by Horton in 1952 and for migraine patients in 1940 by Alvarez. At the time, neither of the authors provided any reason why they chose for this treatment method. The vasoconstrictive effect of oxygen was not described by Horton until 1961.
We suggest that these authors originally adhered to the vasoconstrictive theory of vascular headache that was prevalent in the early 20th century until Wolff demonstrated the contrary in the late 1930s. The early literature describes an analogy between angina pectoris and migraine, as both being due to vasoconstriction. As oxygen was described as a treatment for angina pectoris, this may be the reason why oxygen was tried for migraine and cluster headache at a time when they were not recognized as separate entities. Later it turned out to be more effective for cluster headache.
自库德罗（1981 年）进行了一项对照试验，表明氧气与麦角胺注射同样有效甚至更有效以来，氧气一直是丛集性头痛发作的一种公认的治疗方法。
本研究旨在提供氧气治疗丛集性头痛的历史观点，并找到这种治疗方法的起源。1952 年，霍顿首次描述了氧气治疗丛集性头痛，1940 年阿尔瓦雷斯首次描述了氧气治疗偏头痛患者。当时，两位作者都没有提供选择这种治疗方法的任何原因。直到 1961 年，霍顿才描述了氧气的血管收缩作用。
我们认为，这些作者最初遵循的是 20 世纪早期流行的血管性头痛的血管收缩理论，直到沃尔夫在 20 世纪 30 年代末证明了相反的理论。早期文献将心绞痛和偏头痛描述为类似的疾病，因为它们都是由血管收缩引起的。由于氧气被描述为心绞痛的治疗方法，因此，在偏头痛和丛集性头痛尚未被确认为独立实体的时期，尝试用氧气治疗偏头痛和丛集性头痛可能是有道理的。后来发现，氧气对丛集性头痛更有效。
