Dizziness forms about 15 - 20 % of my practice.Dizzy patients are given symptomatic treatment by general practitioners & usually they are referred to specialists like Physicians,ENT's,Neurologists,Neurosurgeons,Cardiologists and to Psychiatrists.
I thought of dividing the topic into 3 parts
1. Introduction & brief anatomy
2. Clinical Approach:Good history & targeted neurotological examination
3. Management
"What is dizziness or vertigo?"
The term Dizziness or vertigo is synonymously used.
The term dizziness tends to be used by patients to include a wide spectrum of sensation from dizziness or disequilibrium through spatial disorientation to simple faintness,blackouts or light headedness.Some of the patients simply refer their symptoms to Meneire's or Positional vertigo.
Literally the word vertigo has come from Latin word "Vertere" which means whirling ie to turn.Other effective definitions are "a subjective sense of imbalance "which may or may not include sense of rotation"(Kerr) & "illusionary sense of unidirectional environment and/or bodily rotational movement "(Daroff).
Balance is maintained by visual apparatus (eyes & it's neural connections ),vestibular system (includes inner ear structures -3 semicircular canals & 2 otoliths) & the proprioceptive organs (proprioceptors sensory receptors in muscles, joint capsules and surrounding tissues, that signal information to the central nervous system about position and movement of body parts).
Above chart courtesy vestibular disorder association who have a very informative website vestibular.org
Though we have three organs as mentioned above to maintain balance,two are sufficient to maintain balance.Brain decodes the signal send by these organs through respective nerves.
Disclaimer :Kindly note the above information is over simplified for a lay man to understand & in no way depicts exact neuro anatomy which is not the intention of this blog)
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