Aircraft headache is a form of headache related to airplane travel .
It manifests itself with a brief but intense attack of pain that occurs suddenly, especially during the landing phase.
Aircraft headache is unilateral and described as stabbing. In almost all cases, the disorder lasts less than 30 minutes.
Mechanisms at the base
Recently reported, it is still not clear what can trigger it, but probably, as for other forms of headache, the etiology is multifactorial .
The most accepted hypothesis is that the disorder is related to a lack of compensation between the air pressure contained in the cavities of the paranasal sinuses and the environmental one during the rapid change in altitude.
At the base, therefore, there would be the same mechanism responsible for a similar pain in those suffering from sinusitis, cooling syndrome or other diseases of the upper airways before the flight.
