Abstract
This article presents the clinical features of 208 patients who visited the Hamanomachi Hospital Department of Otorhinolaryngology between March 2008 and February 2009 with a chief complaint of balance problems. There were approximately 2.6 times more female patients than males. The mean age of the patients was 55.4 years old, and the peak incidence was in the sixth decade. The most common diagnosis was benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (13%), followed by Meniere's disease (53%), vestibular neuritis (1.4%) and sudden deafness (1.0%). Three cases (1.4%) were caused by CNS disease including pontine infraction, spinocerebellar ataxia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
