Vertigo in simple language means giddiness. It is a hallucination of movement due to disturbance of the sense of equilibrium. Patient feels that his surroundings are going around him or that he himself is rotating spinning. It may be accompanied with nausea, vomiting, sweating and diarrhea. It mainly occurs due to inner ear pathology. Causes of vertigo include peripheral causes such as Meniere’s disease, Benign paroxysmal position vertigo (BPPV), vestibular neuronitis, labrynthitis, vestibulotoxic drugs, head trauma, acoustic neuroma. Central causes for vertigo include vertebrobasillar insufficiency, post. Inf. cerebellar artery syndrome, basilar migraine, cerebellar disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, cervical vertigo. Patient presents with giddiness. Routine investigations done include tuning fork tests, pure tone, audiogram, impedence audiometry, BERA, Xray cervical spine, blood tests, ECG. Patient needs to be reassured that his symptoms will decrease, treatment for the cause is necessary. Labyrinthine sedatives are given. There is minimal role of surgery except for acoustic neuroma cases
The most common causes of vertigo are inner ear infections or diseases of the ear such as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), vestibular neuritis, and Meniere's disease. BPPV can occur when calcium builds up in canals of the inner ear, causing brief dizziness that lasts from 20 seconds to one minute
Commonly elderly age group 40-60 is commonly affected as diabetis, hypertension, cervical spine problems are more common
Due to stimulation of vagus nerve
Audiogram is necessary to know the type and nature of associated hearing loss as is seen in cases of acoustic neuroma
Cinnarizine or beta histine
