ENT
CONDITIONS
Dizziness & Vertigo
Vertigo or giddiness is a disturbance of the sense of equilibrium and movements, where the person feels that either his surroundings are going round him, or he himself is rotating. It varies from a sense of mild imbalance or dizziness to severe vertigo accompanied by nausea and vomiting. It should be distinguished from blackout, where the person gets a sinking feeling and faints. Severe vertigo may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, perspiration, gastric upset and diarrhoea due to vagal stimulation.
Causes
Causes in the Ear
EXTERNAL EAR
Wax
Furuncle or wax may rarely produce vertigo due to the stimulation of auricular branch of the vagus nerve.
MIDDLE EAR
Eustachian catarrh: The negative pressure in the middle ear may be transmitted to the inner ear causing giddiness.
Otitis media: Acute otitis media and chronic dangerous otitis media may cause giddiness by producing labyrinthitis.
INNER EAR
- Trauma
Head injuries with fracture of temporal bones involving the labyrinth may cause giddiness along with sensori-neural deafness.
Surgical trauma: While performing mastoidectomy or stapedectomy, vestibule may be damaged.
Acoustic trauma: Very loud sound may occasionally cause vertigo (Tullio phenomenon).
Perilymph fistula may result from barotrauma with rupture of round window membrane. It may occur at the oval window following stapedectomy.
- Infections
Labyrinthitis secondary to acute otitis media, dangerous chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma, tuberculous or syphilitic otitis media.
Labyrinthitis secondary to meningitis.
Viral labyrinthitis due to mumps, measles, herpes zoster.
Syphilis.
- Vascular causes : Thrombosis, embolism of the blood vessels supplying the labyrinth.
- Tumours: Acoustic neuroma is a neurofibroma arising from the eighth nerve in the internal auditory meatus.
- Meniere's syndrome is a group of otological diseases, having dissimilar aetiology. They have vertigo as a dominating symptom. These diseases include: |
(a) Meniere's disease.
(b) Vestibular neuronitis.
(c) Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.
(d) Lermoyez syndrome.
(e) Acoustic neuroma, which is a tumour
- Motion sickness is due to hypersensitive labyrinth, with functional overlay due to the fear of recurrence of symptoms.
- Ototoxic drugs like streptomycin.
Treatments
Vertigo has multiple causes and can happen at any age although it is more common is elderly people. Homoeopathic doctor will find out the underlying causative factor of vertigo and then treats to cure the cause of the patient so that the symptoms go away permanently. Vertigo has good scope in Homoeopathy. It cures it gently and permanently.
Homeopathic remedies which help in such patients are kali phosphoricum, moschus, staphysagria etc.
