Headache associated with dialysis: the International Headache Society criteria revisited

The International Headache Society (IHS) criteria for headache related to haemodialysis consider that the headaches must begin during haemodialysis and terminate within 24 h. Twenty-eight patients whose headaches started by the time they entered the dialysis programme were prospectively studied. We were not able to classify eight patients that presented the headaches between the sessions. Despite the small number of patients in our study being too low to provide a basis for change in the IHS classification, it serves as an observational report demonstrating possible varieties of headache related to haemodialysis.