Vertigo in children: Our experiences at a tertiary care teaching hospital of eastern India

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the vertigo among pediatric age presenting to the vertigo clinic at the department of otorhinolaryngology of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: Patient records of 108 children under the age of 18 years with vertigo as the chief complaint examined at vertigo clinic, the department of otorhinolaryngology of tertiary care teaching hospital between January 2015 and March 2020. All the data were retrospectively reviewed. The clinical presentations, laboratory tests including audiological and vestibular tests were analyzed. Results: This study consisted 108 children with 66 girls (61.11%) and 42 boys (38.88%) between the age of 4 and 18 years (mean age, 12.4 years). The most common etiology for pediatric vertigo in this study was vestibular migraine (VM) followed by benign paroxysmal vertigo of children and vestibular neuritis. The duration of vertigo attacks occurred in seconds in 29 children (26.85%), min in 45 children (41.66%), hours in 27 children (25%), and more than 24 h in 7 children (6.48%). Conclusion: VM was found to be a more common diagnosis in pediatric vertigo, although several peripheral vestibular causes were diagnosed. Proper evaluation of vertigo in children should be done with thorough neuro-otologic examination. Other multidisciplinary team members should be there during evaluation of vertigo in children to avoid unnecessary delay in diagnosis and treatment.