Main description:

Vertigo and dizziness rate among the most frequently occurring presenting complaints in neurology and in general medical practice. Since most patients do not have acute complaints at the time of examination, the clinician requires keen judgment in making a diagnosis, as patients often report confusing, real, or hypothetical causes of their problems. An improvement in the scientific understanding of vestibular physiology in recent years has led to the development of
new diagnostic tests and more effective therapies. However, many of these advances have been slow to be adopted into routine clinical practice.
Part of the Oxford Neurology Library (ONL) series, Vertigo and Dizziness helps clinicians improve their management of patients with these conditions. The text provides an overview of clinical vestibular physiology as well as of the latest developments in bedside examination, diagnosis/differential diagnosis, and state-of-the-art therapy. Vertigo and Dizziness serves as an essential clinical guide for neurologists, otorhinolaryngologists, and trainees in those disciplines, and
for general practitioners and medical students.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Neurotology is about neurology for ENT specialists; about ENT for neurologists, and about both specialities for general practitioners. ; 2. Dizziness as emergency: Simple, fast bedside tests to differentiate between potentially dangerous and peripheral causes in the emergency room and general practice ; 3. Vestibular physiology: The basics presented accessibly ; 4. History of complaints as a diagnostic tool:First episode, recurrent attacks, chronic dizziness, triggers, onset and types ; 5. Examination methods: Bedside tests; new innovative instrumental vestibular testing (3 dimensional head impulse test and evoked responses) ; 6. Three frequent peripheral causes of dizziness and vertigo: Effective therapy of Menieres disease and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo; differential diagnosis of vestibular neuritis ; 7. Chronic vestibular insufficiency: Complaints and causes ; 8. Diseases of the temporal bone: Fractures, pathological third windows on the labyrinth, schwannoma ; 9. Central causes of vertigo, dizziness and imbalance: Migraine, TIA, stroke, ataxias and other neurological vestibular syndromes ; 10. Medical, non-vestibular causes of dizziness or vertigo: Frequent, potentially life threatening and benign, self-limiting systemic causes ; 11. Diagnosis of falls, dizziness in children and elderly: Benign and more urgent causes of falls, classification and prevention ; 12. Controversial issues: Vestibular paroxysmia, cervical vertigo, spontaneous perilymphatic fistula:do they exist? New theories about chronic postural/positional vertigo and dizziness