Summary:
The authors submit an overview of contemporary knowledge of benign positional
paroxysmal vertigo (BPPV). BPPV is fairly well known in western Europe and the USA and is
commonly diagnosed and treated. In our region the disease is still more or less unknown among the
wider medical community. It is not unknown because it does not occur in this country but because
we lack so far tradition and experience with its diagnosis and treatment.
Vertigo of this type is caused by movements of the head, most frequently by turning in bed or by
a backward movement of the head. The cause is the impact of the floating otolith on the hair cells of
the posterior semicircular canal. The diagnosis is made by provocation using Dix-Hallping’s mano-
euvres or preferably ENG. For treatment special positioning manoeuvres are used which shift the
irritating floating particles into a non-irritable area.The authors present the first results of treatment of BPPV in the AUDIO-Fon centre. For treatment
Semont’s positional manoeuvres are used and subsequently Brand-Daroff exercise. The effect of
treatment is, consistent with data in the literature, 80 - 90%.
Key words:
benign positional paroxysmal vertigo, BPPV.
|