Investigation of inpatients with vertigo and dizziness in a general hospital

Abstract

We studied 169 inpatients (65 male and 104 female) with vertigo and/or dizziness in Joetsu General Hospital from October 2009 to March 2013. The age distribution showed a peak in the sixties. The most frequent diagnosis was vestibular neuritis (34%), followed by Meniere's disease (17%), sudden deafness (9%), and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (5%). There were three cases (2%) of brainstem/cerebellar infarction. The average length of hospitalization was 9.05±8.07 days. Positive findings in simple examination, such as spontaneous/ gazed/positional nystagmus, head -shaking nystagmus, head impulse test, were seen in 78.7% of patients. Among the 54 cases with spontaneous nystagmus, the average length of hospitalization was shorter in patients with negative head impulse test than in those with positive head impulse test.