Central vestibular diagnosis. Neurologic examination.

Abstract

The aspects of the neurologic examination concerned with lesions in central vestibular structures must take into consideration how these structures function physiologically as components of the much larger sysem controlling static and dynamic equilibrium. Methods for differentiating disturbances in the different components are outlined. There are a number of structures which lie in the brain stem in proximity to the central vestibular mechanisms; disturbances in equilibrium associated with evidence of disturbance in these contiguous structures tend to implicate the central vestibular structures. When the probable localization of lesions has been decided, the history of evolution of symptoms often provides an indication of a probable diagnosis.