Dizziness Depot

Featured image for “Skull Vibration Induced Nystagmus Test: shaking up vestibular assessment?”
Jan. 02, 2018

Skull Vibration Induced Nystagmus Test: shaking up vestibular assessment?

Alan Desmond
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
Featured image for “My Favorite Post – Meclizine (Updated)”
Dec. 17, 2017

My Favorite Post – Meclizine (Updated)

Alan Desmond
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
Featured image for “Cervical Vertigo – Diagnosis, Possible Causes and Treatment”
Dec. 05, 2017

Cervical Vertigo – Diagnosis, Possible Causes and Treatment

Alan Desmond
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
Featured image for “Trials and Tribulations of Vestibular Pioneers”
Nov. 24, 2017

Trials and Tribulations of Vestibular Pioneers

Alan Desmond
 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
Featured image for “Living with Chronic Vestibular Dysfunction”
Oct. 24, 2017

Living with Chronic Vestibular Dysfunction

Alan Desmond
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
Featured image for “Traumatic Brain Injury: The Blunt Truth”
Oct. 10, 2017

Traumatic Brain Injury: The Blunt Truth

Alan Desmond
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
Sep. 26, 2017

Vestibular Neuritis Part II

Alan Desmond
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
Featured image for “Vestibular Neuritis Hits Home”
Sep. 12, 2017

Vestibular Neuritis Hits Home

Alan Desmond
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
Featured image for “VEMPs: What are they good for?”
Aug. 15, 2017

VEMPs: What are they good for?

Alan Desmond
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
Featured image for “Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (VEMP)”
Aug. 01, 2017

Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials (VEMP)

Alan Desmond
What are they? This week’s post is brought to you by my current doctoral student, Brady Workman. Brady is working towards his degree at East Tennessee State University, known for a strong vestibular program. He is teaching me a few things about VEMPs. Here’s Brady: Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) are measurements originating from the otolith organs of the vestibular