Rhizotomy

  I have had constant headaches for about 10 months from a car accident.  A doctor has done 3 proceedures where he injected local anasthetic into the facet joint nerves.  The headaches subsided for a few hours on the side of the blocks.
  Now he wants to do a rhizotomy on the facet joint nerves as well as the 3rd occipatil nerve.  I am wondering if this is an accepted procedure and what the risks are.
  Stuart Grant
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The procedure of rhizotomy is by not standard therapy for headaches but
in your case the duration and severity of the headaches would merit the procedure.
The procedure is done fairly commonly for trigeminal neuralgia, a type of
facial pain syndrome.
It is interesting that you had releif following the trial injection since
this is a good predictor of a good long term outcome, the risks are those of
any surgical procedure, infection, pain etc but overall no major
complications have been reported.
Since this is a fairly radical step perhaps you should considera second
opinion before proceding, you have nothing to lose and if you proceed
you will do so with more confidence.