Differential diagnosis of vertigo and dizziness in the emergency department

Abstract Conclusions: To establish a system of differential diagnosis for vertigo/dizziness at the Emergency Department (ED), careful history-taking of complications and examinations of nystagmus should be helpful and therefore prepared by ED staff. Objectives: Vertigo/dizziness could come from various kinds of organs for equilibrium, sometimes resulting in an emergency due to the central origin. In the present study, we checked patients' background data at the ED in advance of a definitive diagnosis at the Department of Otolaryngology and examined the significance of the correlation between the data and the diagnosis. Methods: We studied a series of 120 patients with vertigo/dizziness, who visited the Departments of Emergency and Otolaryngology between April 2011 and March 2012. At the ED, we first checked patients' backgrounds and carried out neurologic and neuro-otologic examinations. At the Department of Otolaryngology, we finally diagnosed all the patients according to the criteria and classified the...