Causes of Vertigo

DEFINITION

Vertigo is a feeling as if the patient moves or rotates, or as if the objects around the patient is moving or spinning, usually accompanied by nausea and loss of balance. Vertigo may last only a few moments or may continue for several hours or even days. Patients often feel better when lying still, but the vertigo may continue even if the patient does not move at all.

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo is a disease that is often found, in which vertigo occurs suddenly and lasts less than 1 minute. Changes in head position (usually occurs when patients lie down, get up, roll over in bed or looking back) is usually triggered this episode of vertigo. The disease is apparently caused by the presence of calcium deposits in one of the semicircular canals in the inner ear.


This kind of terrible vertigo, but is not harmful and usually disappears by itself within a few weeks or months. Not accompanied by hearing loss or ringing in the ears.

CAUSE
Sense the position and control the body balance through the organ of balance located in the inner ear. This organ has a nerve associated with a particular area of ​​the brain. Vertigo can be caused by abnormalities in the ear, in the nerve connecting the ear to the brain and in the brain itself. Vertigo can also be associated with abnormalities of vision or change in blood pressure that occurs suddenly.

A common cause of vertigo:

1. The environment
- Motion sickness (carsick, seasick)

2. Drugs
- Alcohol
- Gentamicin

3. Circulatory disorders
- Transient ischemic attack (a temporary disruption of brain function due to reduced blood flow to one part of the brain) in the vertebral artery and basilar artery

4. Abnormalities in the ear
- Deposition of calcium in one of the semicircular canals in the inner ear (causing benign paroxysmal positional vertigo)
- Infection of the inner ear due to bacterial
- Herpes zoster
- Labirintitis (infection of the labyrinth in the ear)
- Inflammation of the vestibular nerve
- Meniere's Disease

5. Neurological disorder
- Multiple sclerosis
- Fracture of skull with injury to the labyrinth, persarafannya or both
- Brain tumors
- Tumors of pressing the vestibular nerve.

SYMPTOMS
Patients feel as if she moves or rotates, or the patient felt as if the object moves or rotates around it.

Diagnosis
Before starting treatment, to be determined the nature and causes of vertigo. Abnormal eye movements indicate a malfunction in the inner ear or the nerves that connect it to the brain. Nystagmus is rapid eye movement from left to right or from top to bottom. Direction of movement can help in diagnosis.Nystagmus can be stimulated by moving the patient's head suddenly or with a drop of cold water into the ear.

To test balance, the patient asked to stand and then walk in a straight line, first with eyes open, then with eyes closed. A hearing test can often determine the presence of ear disorder that affects balance and hearing. Other tests are CT scan or MRI of the head, which can show abnormalities of bone or a tumor pressing against a nerve. If suspected of an infection, fluid samples can be taken from the ear or sinus or from the spine. If there is supposedly decreased blood flow to the brain, the angiogram examination, to see any blockages in blood vessels leading to the brain.

TREATMENT
Treatment depends on the cause. Medications to reduce mild vertigo that is meklizin, dimenhidrinat, perfenazin and scopolamine. Scopolamine primarily serves to prevent motion sickness, which is found in the form of skin patches to work for a few days old. All of the above drugs can cause drowsiness, especially in the elderly. Scopolamine in the form of plaster cause drowsiness effect of the least