We proposed the concept of vestibular dysfunction, analyzed the causes of vestibular dysfunction, and clarified the relationship between vertigo and inadequate blood supply to the vertebrobasilar artery and chronic cerebral insufficiency. METHODS: Forty-one inpatients with complete data from the Department of Neurology of our hospital were selected for analysis, and the causes of vestibular dysfunction were classified into six categories: 1) ischemia and hypoxia, 2) functional abnormalities, 3) inflammation, 4) structural abnormalities, 5) metabolic abnormalities, and 6) others. The results showed that ischemia and hypoxia accounted for 65.64%, functional abnormalities for 43.37%, inflammation for 7.6%, structural abnormalities for 6.4%, metabolic abnormalities for 6.17%, and others for 1.5%. CONCLUSION: The concept of vestibular dysfunction was proposed, which can, to a certain extent, avoid too much consideration of cerebral blood supply deficiency and neglect other important factors causing vertigo, in order to reduce the misdiagnosis of vertigo, expand the diagnostic scope of vertigo, improve the diagnosis of vertigo, and improve the treatment of vertigo, which is worth further clinical exploration.