A Paradoxical Clinical Coincidence: Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo and Bilateral Vestibulopathy

J Clin Med. 2023 May 11;12(10):3413. doi: 10.3390/jcm12103413.

Abstract

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and bilateral vestibulopathy (BVL) are two completely different forms of vestibular disorder that occasionally occur in the same patient. We conducted a retrospective review searching for that coincidence in our database of the patients seen over a 15-year period and found this disorder in 23 patients, that is 0.4%. More frequently they occurred sequentially (10/23) and BPPV was diagnosed first. Simultaneous presentation occurred in 9/23 patients. It was subsequently studied, but in a prospective manner, in patients with BPPV on all of whom a video head impulse test was performed to search for bilateral vestibular loss; we found it was slightly more frequent (6/405). Both disorders were treated accordingly, and it was found that the results follow the general trend in patients with only one of those disorders.

Keywords: dizziness; vestibulopathy; vestíbulo-ocular reflex.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.