Fatemeh Ahmadi
1 
, Masoumeh Bagheri Nesami
2* , Mobina Abedinpour
1 1 Student Research Committee, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
2 Traditional and Complementary Medicine Research Center, Addiction Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
Abstract
Nitroglycerin is a rapid-acting vasodilator commonly used as a first-line agent for the treatment of angina. Some patients receiving intravenous nitroglycerin infusion experience headaches as a side effect. Pain management is a critical priority for these patients. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions on headaches induced by nitroglycerin infusion. This systematic review was conducted by searching the databases of SID, Magiran, Irandoc, Civilica, Science Direct, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, World Health Organization (WHO) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Google Scholar using the keywords “Nitroglycerin”, “Glyceryl trinitrate”, “Headache”, “Cephalgia”, “Cephalodynia”, “Interventions” and “Infusion”. After removing duplicates, studies were first screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and their quality was then assessed. Finally, a total of 13 studies were entered into the systematic review. The total number of participants in all studies included in the review was 566 individuals aged 18 years and older. Eight studies (61.5%) addressed pharmacological interventions, and five studies (38.5%) addressed non-pharmacological interventions. The review of studies indicated that the use of cold compresses on the forehead, lavender essential oil aromatherapy, foot reflexology, sodium valproate, sumatriptan, and prednisone have proven to be effective treatments for headaches induced by nitroglycerin infusion; their use is recommended in the order mentioned for alleviating nitroglycerin-induced headaches. The use of cold compresses on the forehead, lavender essential oil aromatherapy, foot reflexology, sodium valproate, sumatriptan, and prednisone positively impacted the reduction of headaches induced by nitroglycerin infusion.