Carotid vascular pain--a simple treatment.

Carotid vascular pain has been misdiagnosed in the past as various other conditions. Various etiologies have been assigned to it without clinical or experimental evidence. Haphazard treatment using ganglion-blockers, nicotinic acid, allergy hyposensitization and steroids have been instituted based on imaginary causes of the problem. This paper intends to show that there is no known cause for carotid pain. A simple, effective, safe and inexpensive form of treatment is presented; namely, explaining the problem to the patient, allaying their apprehension and using aspirin in a more scientific fashion. A three-year follow-up is presented.