They suffer from chronic migraines, resistant to nearly all treatments, and are therefore clamoring for the Pain Management Department (at Marino Hospital) to be able to obtain monoclonal antibodies, the latest advancement in the fight against headaches. Although the center has a neurologist, a necessary qualification for accreditation to use this therapy, the department headed by Chief Physician Tomaso Cocco appears to have been left out for now, despite the 2,500 chronic migraine patients from across the island. These monoclonal antibodies, however, are available, subject to a waiting list, at Brotzu, Santissima Trinità, and the Policlinico di Monserrato.

The testimony

"I've been treated at the Marino Pain Therapy Center for five years," Marina Trincas explains. "At this center for chronic migraines, I've had nerve blocks, infiltrations, and Botox. For years, they helped me. Today, however, I don't even respond to Botox. My doctors clearly say I need monoclonal antibodies, but despite this center being considered a Sardinian center of excellence, it isn't accredited to prescribe them. And this is unacceptable. They send me elsewhere, to other hospitals, with endless waiting lists and without even the certainty of receiving treatment. Meanwhile, I suffer. Every day." Hence the questions: "How is it possible that a center that treats migraines, cluster headaches, and facial pain, which uses all the most advanced techniques," she continues, "is being left behind in a fundamental treatment? We only ask to be able to continue treating us in our hospital, with the therapy we need."

The situation

At Marino, among the more than 2,500 patients treated, there are those from Santa Teresa, Orosei, and Northern Sardinia. Many manage to resolve the problem with infiltration blocks of the greater occipital nerve, or blocks of the sphenopalatine ganglion, as well as the frontal and facial nerves, and even botulinum therapy for chronic migraines. Approximately a fifth of patients, however, are resistant to all therapies and—experts say—should be treated with monoclonal antibodies. But despite the addition of a neurologist to the facility since 2023, the Pain Therapy Center is still not accredited (the request has been rejected three times in the past), and patients are forced to turn to Brotzu, Santissima Trinità, or the recently accredited Neurology Department of the Monserrato Polyclinic. Now, many patients are exasperated and are organizing a spontaneous committee to defend their right to effective, continuous, and comprehensive care.

Francesco Pinna

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