Epidemiological Survey of Vestibular Disorders

Abstract

In 1980, the Vestibular Disorders Research Committee of Japan, which is supported by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, was founded by 24 doctors, who come from various districts or areas of Japan. First of all, the Committee drafted the diagnostic criteria of several peripheral vestibular disorders, such as benign paroxysmal vertigo, vestibular neuronitis, bilateral loss of labyrinthine function, inner ear syphilis. In the epidemiological survey, 783 cases of vestibular disorders were collected from the Committee members. The proportion of vestibular disorders in the total number of patient treated during the same period was 3.2-3.8% for new patients. The male: female ratio was 3.6:4.7. Among these cases, the proportion of definite casses of Ménière's disease in the total number of new patients was 0.79%, and this figure is very close to the proportion obtained from the epidemiological survey by the Ménière's disease Research Committee of Japan in 1977, and the prevalence of Ménière's disease estimated from the survey was 160 per million. The prevalence of each type of vestibular disorders estimated from the data of Ménière's disease were as follows: benign paroxysmal positional vertigo 107, sudden deafness with vestibular disturbance 85, vestibular neuronitis 35, traumatic vestibular disorders 18, bilateral loss of vestibular function 16, inner ear syphilis 11 (per million). However, as these estimations are based on the second hand data, further investigation will be necessary.