Equine headshaking syndrom

We aimed to present headshaking syndrome (HS), that is used to be understood as a behavioral problem, but a broad research proved, it is a disorder mostly related to trigeminal nerve neuropathy. The common symptoms of HS are spontaneous and frequently repetitive head movements, believed to be caused by hypersensitivity of trigeminal nerve. It has been proved, that horses diagnosed as idiopathic headshakers had much lower thresholds for activation of infraorbital branch of maxillary nerve. Due to the similarities with human trigeminal neuralgia, there were suggestions for similarities of etiopathogenesis on a nerve demyelination but since no pathological findings have proved the theory, the functional origin of HS is currently suggested. There is no gold standard for the diagnosis and treatment of HS. One of the most common pharmacological treatment protocols was the combination of cyproheptadine and carbamazemine, but latest studies show very promising effects of much less invasive, percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PENST), electroacupuncture and transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TENS)