小児めまい症例の検討

抄録

　 Vertigo or dizziness is infrequent in pediatric patients. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the prevalence and etiology of vertigo in children. The subjects were 127 patients who were less than 16 years old (at the first visit) and visited the university hospital of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine between January 2008 and March 2022, with the chief complaint of vertigo or dizziness. The patients consisted of 53 boys and 74 girls, with a mean age of 11.2 years. The predominant diagnoses were orthopedic dysfunction (OD; 34 patients, 26.7%); psychogenic vertigo (16 patients, 12.6%); vestibular migraine of childhood (VMC; 16 patients, 12.6%); recurrent vertigo of childhood (8 patients, 6.3%); Meniere's disease (5 patients, 3.9%); delayed endolymphatic hydrops (5 patients, 3.9%), hypotension due to underlying conditions (5 patients, 3.9%), and others.

　 The percentage of patients with OD was the highest at 39.7% in junior and senior high school students. The percentage of patients with psychogenic vertigo was the highest at 16.2% in late elementary grades. The percentage of patients with VMC was almost the same in students from elementary school to high school. The percentages of patients with inner ear anomalies and hypotension due to underlying conditions were high in early elementary students.

　 Triggers were observed in 63 patients: psychogenic stress, sleep deprivation, chronic fatigue, excessive gaming, menstruation, pain due to other diseases, water deficiency, and adverse weather. The most frequent cause was bullying in the patients with psychogenic stress. Extracurricular activities were the main cause in both patients with sleep deprivation and those with chronic fatigue.