Effect of Nerve Variations on the Stimulus Current Level in a Wearable Neuromodulator for Migraine: A Modeling Study

Abstract

Migraine is a socioeconomic burden, whose pharmaceutical and invasive treatment methods may have troublesome side-effects. A wearable neuromodulator targeting frontal nerve branches of trigeminal nerve may provide an effective solution to suppress or treat migraine. Such solutions have had limited efficacies. In this paper, using computational models, the relationship of this lack of efficacy to some neural variations is investigated. The results indicate that due to neuro-anatomic variations, different current levels may be required to achieve a sufficient level of neural stimulation. Thus, an optimized design should consider such variations across the patient group.