2012 Volume 71 Issue 6 Pages 456-465
Many patients who have been receiving treatment for dizziness in our clinic complained of some worsening of their symptoms or changing of their usual problems after the “Mega-quake” of 11, Mar. 2011, i.e. the Higashi-Nihon Daishinsai earthquake (Magnitude: 9.0). In order to elucidate the influence of the Mega-quake on patients with dizziness, we assessed 235 subjects within 2 weeks after the `quake' with a questionnaire. The number of new patients within the 2 weeks before and after the earthquake rose from 19 to 29. The response rate from the questionnaire was 59%, and the three most serious symptoms were as follows, “horizontal swinging of the earth”, “vertical movement of the earth”, “nausea sensation similar to motion sickness”, rather than the usual symptoms such as vertigo or blackouts. As objective findings, spontaneous and positional nystagmus was encountered 27% of the respondents and one in 5 patients showed a larger area of body sway in the Gravicorder Recording. Some of the neurological considerations were discussed based on the results of our investigation regarding the earthquake and body equilibrium.
