Childhood vertigo: A retrospective series of 791 cases

Abstract

Background: Vertigo is one of the most common complaints leading to admissions in pediatric neurology clinics. Diagnosis of vertigo in children is often challenging due to limited communication capacity in defining symptoms, the unreliability of neurovestibular investigations in children and the variability of etiologies. The aim of this study is to evaluate clinical and etiological profile of vertigo in childhood and to assess the diagnostic yield of neuroimaging and electroencephalography (EEG).

Methods: All patients under the age of 18 years presented with vertigo to the pediatric neurology outpatient clinic of Ankara Keçiören Research and Training Hospital were included in the study. Demographic data, accompanying symptoms, family history, physical and neurological examination findings, neuroimaging, and EEG results were retrospectively analyzed. The etiological spectrum was also evaluated according to age groups.

Results: A total of 791 patients (female/male=2.1) with a mean age of 13.1 years were included in the study. The most common etiologies were vestibular migraine (27.3%) and psychogenic vertigo (14.9%) in the entire cohort; whereas benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood was the top diagnosis in children ≤12 years (25%). The most common accompanying symptom was headache (36.7%) which was most frequently associated with vertigo attacks in migrainous patients. In most cases there was no correlation between neuroimaging findings and vertigo. Additionally, the contribution of EEG to the diagnosis was found to be limited.

Conclusion: Most of the childhood vertigo cases can be diagnosed accurately by a detailed medical history, physical and neurological examination. A multidisciplinary approach is essential for evaluating childhood vertigo and all the signs and symptoms accompanying vertigo should be considered while planning further investigations including neuroimaging and EEG.