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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes Headache While Coughing Or Straining?

Why when I strain or cough do I get an extremely sharp pain in the left side of my head.. almost as if its in my brain. I am not sick... and haven t been. This started out of nowhere. It s excruciating.. causes some numbness in my face and makes me lightheaded
Fri, 27 Feb 2015
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Neurologist,  's  Response
Hello dear,
Thanks for being on healthcaremagic.com.If you would have presented to me as an outpatient,I would have made the following clinical explanation-
Straining or coughing causing sharp localised(on left side of head) headache is a red flag for an intracranial pathology.Pain is excruciating or thunderclap and it mandates its evaluation by a brain imaging study.Please visit a neurologist so that he thoroughly examines you for any neurological deficit.He will probably let you undergo a Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) of Brain and MR angiography of Brain vessels if needed to rule out an aneurysm or a vascular structural abnormality.A MRI may help to rule out a space occupying lesion. I hope it helps.
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What Causes Headache While Coughing Or Straining?

Hello dear, Thanks for being on healthcaremagic.com.If you would have presented to me as an outpatient,I would have made the following clinical explanation- Straining or coughing causing sharp localised(on left side of head) headache is a red flag for an intracranial pathology.Pain is excruciating or thunderclap and it mandates its evaluation by a brain imaging study.Please visit a neurologist so that he thoroughly examines you for any neurological deficit.He will probably let you undergo a Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) of Brain and MR angiography of Brain vessels if needed to rule out an aneurysm or a vascular structural abnormality.A MRI may help to rule out a space occupying lesion. I hope it helps.