Early Diagnosis and Management of Acute Vertigo from Vestibular Migraine and Ménière's Disease

Abstract

Vestibular migraine is the most common cause of acute episodic vestibular symptoms after benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. In contrast, Ménière's disease is an uncommon disorder. For both conditions, early and accurate diagnosis (or its exclusion) enables the correct management of patients with acute episodic vestibular symptoms. Long-term management of migraine requires changes in lifestyle to avoid triggers of migraine and/or prophylactic drugs if attacks become too frequent. The long-term management of Ménière's disease also involves lifestyle changes (low salt diet), medications (betahistine, steroids), and ablative therapy applied to the diseased ear (eg, intratympanic gentamicin).

Keywords: Hearing loss; Migraine; Ménière’s disease; Tinnitus; Vertigo; Vestibular disorders.