Dizziness Depot

In the past decade, we have had our share of events that have been labeled a crisis. We had the housing crisis, then the stock market crisis. Today, we are going to talk about a different kind of crisis. Originally described in 1932, the otolith crisis of Tumarkin (also described as a “Drop Attack“) is a rare but frightening presentation

Brady Workman is back this week with an article about vibration induced nystagmus, and how they can be helpful in vestibular function testing:       In the area of vestibular assessment, our test findings can sometimes be a bit unclear, often leaving us with as many questions as answers. This is especially true in cases where patients’ vestibular function

This is a mildly updated version of my most read post regarding the use of meclizine. It is only mildly updated because there is still very little new information available. Most patients complaining of dizziness or vertigo have been prescribed meclizine at some point. For a medication that is so widely used, there is very little solid information, creating potential

Dr. Brady Workman is back this week with a post inspired by a patient we saw in the clinic last week. Dizziness and vertigo are common symptoms of patients within primary care clinics, with dizziness accounting for 2.5% and vertigo for around 1% of all patient visits. The majority of these symptoms are related to vestibular system dysfunction; however, other

 Paving the way isn’t always easy. Today’s post started as a Thanksgiving-themed “Thank you” note to some of our vestibular pioneers, but as I researched the backgrounds of these pioneers, I was struck by some of the trials, tribulations, and misadventures some of them encountered. Let’s start with Robert Barany. He won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in

I am about seven weeks out from an acute vestibular neuritis. From a clinician’s point of view, this is a textbook case of acute vestibular syndrome that I have seen hundreds of times. This time, as the patient, my experience has been predictable in some ways, and hard to explain in other ways. The first thing we do when we

Head Trauma and Dizziness This week, we have another contribution by my doctoral student, Brady Workman, B.S.. Brady has been scanning old posts and trying to fill in gaps regarding areas I have not covered in the past few years. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an increasingly prevalent public health concern, with 2.8 million people requiring medical assistance due to

This is what it looks like Today’s post is a two week follow up on my report of my personal experience with Vestibular Neuritis. I came in to my office at 48 hours into the episode to document the obvious nystagmus, measure the effects of fixation and gaze angle, and measure functional changes in my Vestibular Ocular Reflex (VOR). As

Practice What You Preach Last Sunday, I had an up close and personal encounter with Vestibular Neuritis. It hit suddenly, somewhere between buttering the toast and sitting down to breakfast. I was completely symptom free 2 minutes earlier, buzzing around my kitchen making eggs and pouring coffee. I noticed a little lightheaded feeling and blurred vision as I carried my

This is Part II of a post by my doctoral student, Brady Workman, B.S. Last time he described what VEMP’s are actually measuring. This week, he focuses on clinical applications, basically, “What are they good for?” (VEMP) Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials: Now what do we do with them? In the last post, we briefly talked about what VEMPs are and