How is vertigo treated?

    Dizziness is one of the complex clinical conditions that otologists, emergency physicians, neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, and internists need to face frequently. The reason for this complexity is that lesions with dizziness as the main complaint involve multiple departments and are difficult to diagnose. Therefore, when encountering a patient with dizziness, non-vertigo-specialized physicians may also feel dizzy. Clinicians will try to order the patient to go to neurology and orthopedics or even internal medicine for a series of tests to prevent a missed or misdiagnosis. Patients will thus be bounced around from department to department, completing multiple tests such as cranial CT, cranial MR, TCD, cervical vascular ultrasound, cervical spine plain film or MR film, but these results may still not help the patient to make a definite diagnosis, which is very painful for a patient with vertigo in fear.  I was sponsored by Concordia Hospital’s “100 People Program” and had the opportunity to study at Johns Hopkins Hospital’s ENT Balance Center, which has been ranked #1 in the nation for 16 consecutive years. The biggest impression I got from my study in the past 3 months is that the doctors there are obsessed with vertigo. The multidisciplinary joint research team, the constantly updated equipment for various vestibular function examinations, the research on 3D vestibular implant prosthesis for more than ten years. And the most impressive is the vertigo clinic. The doctor who sees vertigo sees only 8 patients per day, and each patient takes 1 hour. After a detailed medical history and careful physical examination, the doctor gives each patient a patient explanation of the condition, bedside treatment and rehabilitation instructions.  What is the significance of such a long consultation and examination?  The diagnosis of vertigo is complex. However, 80% of patients can be diagnosed at the bedside through detailed history taking and careful physical examination. In other words, 80% of patients with vertigo in the ENT office can be given a preliminary diagnosis without the need for each patient to go to neurology, orthopedics, or internal medicine for various tests.  In my clinic, a patient with vertigo usually takes more than 20 minutes to see, and in some cases it can take up to an hour. It is important to communicate fully with the patient and capture valid information from the many details described by the patient. Sometimes the diagnosis can be clarified by a light description from the patient’s mouth. The consultation is followed by at least 10 minutes of bedside examination, and the various diagnoses and differential diagnoses become clearer when the previous history is combined.  I enjoy my “slow clinic”, I enjoy listening to the patient’s description, I enjoy the methodical examination, I enjoy the brain’s rapid sifting, I enjoy the extraction until the clouds clear up.  It is not easy to diagnose vertigo, and some international “greats” are unable to diagnose it in 10-20% of cases. A complex case would keep me awake for several nights, and the patient’s description would keep coming to my mind. After reviewing the literature and pondering over it, the pleasure and joy of having the diagnosis finally become clear is overwhelming.