Benign positional vertigo (BPV)
BPV is one common cause for vertigo. Vertigo is an illusion of spinning surrounding. Patients most of the time claim that they feel like the room is spinning. They said that they cannot open their eyes and feel like they are going to fall.
BPV presents as sudden onset of vertigo lasting only a few seconds or minutes. You might experience a few episodes of vertigo at different time occurs with sudden changes in posture. It usually occurs after head injury or viral illness. It is most likely due to otoliths in the labyrinth.
The diagnosis made mainly from the suggestive history. The Hallpike manouvre will be positive. Otoscopy usually reveal normal tympanic membrane. The natural history is this illness is usually self limiting and may last for few weeks at most. Unfortunately, in few cases, the symptoms may continue intermittently for the next few years. However, the incidence is rare.
Management is mainly reassurance. Some may think that labyrinthine sedatives (like cyclizine or prochlorperazine) is needed, apparently is has been proven not that useful. Your physician might prescribe this to you and as far as I know it works to some extends. In my experience, some patients do come back to me telling their symptoms have improved. If you have BPV, you may minimize the symptoms by taking care of your movement. You may start sitting in lying in stages and avoid sudden quick movement of your head. Habituation may occur by maintaining trigger position until your symptom of vertigo reduce or settle. If the symptom persists, it means you need referral to ENT for physiotherapy. Here, they will do Epleys’ manouvre. This is a rapid repositioning of the head to move the otoliths out of your labyrinth.
Reference:
1. Oxford Handbook of General Practice. Oxford University Press. 2005.
Tags: benign positional vertigo, epley's manouvre, hallpike manaouvre, head injury, illusion, labyrinthine sedatives, otolith, spinning, viral illness
Technorati Tags: benign positional vertigo, epley's manouvre, hallpike manaouvre, head injury, illusion, labyrinthine sedatives, otolith, spinning, viral illness
Nice information BPV
I always thought vertigo was being afraid of heights. By what I read here I assume that it isn’t, but height can be a reason for vertigo. Is that correct?