Graduation Year

2003

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Au.D.

Degree Granting Department

Audiology

Major Professor

Richard A. Roberts, Chair

Co-Major Professor

Richard E. Gans, Co-Chair

Committee Member

Jennifer Lister

Keywords

BPPV, peripheral vestibulopathy, unilateral weakness, caloric testing

Abstract

The incidence data provided by previous investigations of peripheral vestibulopathy in patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) are quite variable. This variability may be explained, in part, by the otologic history of the patients included in these studies. Specifically, patients with a prior history of other otologic disease and BPPV should be more likely to present with peripheral vestibulopathy than patients without no prior history of otologic disease and BPPV. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of peripheral vestibulopathy in these two groups of BPPV patients. Caloric responses were analyzed for two groups of patients with posterior canal BPPV, those with a positive history of otologic disease and those with a negative history of otologic disease. Data were analyzed retrospectively for 157 BPPV patients. Patients with a positive history of otologic disease exhibited a greater incidence of peripheral vestibulopathy than the negative history group. The positive history group, on average, also exhibited a larger unilateral weakness than those patients in the negative history group. We conclude that patients with BPPV and a prior history of otologic disease are more likely to present with peripheral vestibulopathy than patients with BPPV and no history of otologic disease.

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