Dizziness Depot

I have done a couple of blogs over the years under the heading “Vestibular Brain Droppings.” Credit goes to George Carlin for the title. Basically, “Brain Droppings” consist of unrelated factoids or opinions that don’t fit neatly anywhere else. I am day five into home quarantine, so my brain is eager to be productive. I will ask it to be

It’s been two years since I discussed the skull vibration induced nystagmus test (SVINT) in the post Skull Vibration Induced Nystagmus Test: shaking up vestibular assessment?. Since that time, we have implemented skull vibration as a part of our regular vestibular assessment protocol. We currently utilize the North Coast Medical NC 70209 vibrator that is mentioned in the article The

When working in a balance disorders laboratory it never fails that when you ask someone, “what brings you in to see me today” their reply is, “I am dizzy”. This limited description of symptoms is not very helpful in determining the source of ones symptoms and further questioning is required to better understand what is meant by, “I am dizzy”.

Dear Readers: During this holiday season, the editors at Hearing Health & Technology Matters (HHTM) are taking some time off. However, we are not leaving you without anything to read on our blog this week. Instead, we are publishing a special holiday edition filled with what we call our Readers’ Choices. Our Readers’ Choices featured this week are the posts

Yes, I am paraphrasing Jay Z to discuss effective treatment of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo – or BPPV for short. It is difficult now to imagine that when I first started practicing in the early 80s, canalith repositioning (CRP) techniques for BPPV did not exist. My first exposure came when a personal friend came to my office with complaints of

Falls pose a significant risk, leading to severe injuries, reduced quality of life, and even fatalities. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1 in 4 individuals aged 65 and above experience a fall each year. In fact, falls are the primary cause of both fatal and non-fatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults in the United States.

It is not unusual for patients to ask about their ability to drive after being diagnosed with a vestibular disorder. It is a reasonable and responsible concern without a clear answer. Our litigious society dampens our ability to clear a patient when we feel that they have adequately compensated from a chronic vestibular injury, or when BPPV symptoms have resolved. 

Dizziness and imbalance are some of the most commonly reported medical symptoms in an adult population, but are rarely encountered in a pediatric population and are estimated to affect anywhere from 0.4 to 5% of children in the United States. While this is a relatively low percentage of the population, there is also the potential that dizziness symptoms in children

Meniere’s disease (MD) is notoriously difficult to diagnose under the best of circumstances, as symptoms (tinnitus, vertigo and hearing loss) are transient. Vestibular tests and audiograms may be normal in the early stages. Caloric responses may be decreased or increased relative to the healthy ear depending on how recently the patient had an episode. Because testing often fails to produce

I was recently reading an article titled Evaluating the Diagnostic Accuracy of the Head Impulse Test- A Scoping Review. This article’s primary aim was to assess the ability of the video head impulse test (vHIT) to detect vestibular dysfunction based on an extensive review of the literature. In recent years, the introduction of different assessment techniques has allowed for more