Spontaneous plugging of the horizontal semicircular canal with reversible canal dysfunction and recovery of vestibular evoked myogenic potentials.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical pathophysiology of oculomotor changes in a patient presenting with a spontaneous semicircular horizontal canal plug.

Patient: A 42-year-old man with acute spontaneous vertigo with spinning and persistent left-horizontal nystagmus, intensity but not direction dependent on head orientation with respect to gravity, indicating a benign paroxysmal positional vertigo due to otoconia causing a plug in the horizontal semicircular canal.

Intervention: Electrophysiological and video-oculographic testing; vestibular rehabilitation.

Disequilibrium and its management in elderly patients.

Dizziness, a frequent occurrence in the elderly, carries substantial health and quality-of-life consequences for patients. Disequilibrium of the elderly refers to dizziness or ataxia (or both) without apparent localizing signs and is typically attributed to the aging process.In many cases, disequilibrium is multifactorial and worsened or triggered by multiple medications and iatrogenicity.

Stabilization of the head position in pitch plane: study of imbalance during a multisegment posturography examination.

Our purpose was to evaluate head stabilization in pitch plane in patients with different kinds of imbalance when standing over firm and movable surfaces. We used the STATITEST (Société Mumedia, Belgium), a multisegment platform for recording and computing postural adjustments at different body levels. We detected these data by two sensors placed on the head and hip of each subject in four situations: eyes open on a firm surface (EOFS); eyes closed on a firm surface (ECFS); eyes open on a movable surface (EOMS); and eyes closed on a movable surface (ECMS).

Psychological manifestations of vertigo: a pilot prospective observational study in a Portuguese population.

We sought to ascertain the importance of psychological manifestations of vertigo and psychogenic vertigo among a Portuguese population. Sixty patients complaining of vertigo and imbalance were studied over a 2-year period. At each assessment, the patients underwent a general examination, a neurootological evaluation, psychiatric interviews, and psychopathological assessments conducted by a multidisciplinary team.