J Korean Med Sci.  2006 Jun;21(3):539-543. 10.3346/jkms.2006.21.3.539.

Clinical Characteristics of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo in Korea: A Multicenter Study

• Moon SY
• Kim JS
• Kim BK
• Kim JI
• Lee H
• Son SI
• Kim KS
• Rhee CK
• Han GC
• Lee WS

• KMID: 1778441
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2006.21.3.539

Abstract

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is characterized by episodic vertigo and nystagmus provoked by head motions. To study the characteristics of BPPV in a large group of patients in Korea, we retrospectively analyzed clinical features of 1,692 patients (women: 1,146, 67.7%; men: 54.6, 32.3%; mean age: 54.8+/-14.0 yr), who had been diagnosed as BPPV by trained neuro-otologists Dizziness Clinics. The diagnosis of BPPV was based on typical nystagmus elicited by positioning maneuvers. Posterior semicircular canal was involved in 60.9% of the patients, horizontal canal in 31.9%, anterior canal in 2.2%, and mixed canals in 5.0%. The horizontal canal type of BPPV (HC-BPPV) comprised 49.5% of geotropic and 50.5% of apogeotropic types. We could observe significant negative correlation between the proportion of HC-BPPV of each clinic and the mean time interval between the symptom onset and the first visit to the clinics (r=-0.841, p<0.05). Most patients were successfully treated with canalith repositioning maneuvers (86.9%). The high incidence of HC-BPPV in this study may be explained by relatively shorter time interval between the symptom onset and visit to the Dizziness Clinics in Korea, compared with previous studies in other countries.

Keyword

Nystagmus, Pathologic; Positional Nystagmus; Vertigo; Semicircular Canals; Korea, Multicenter Studies

MeSH Terms

Vestibular Function Tests
Vertigo/*diagnosis
Semicircular Canals/pathology
Retrospective Studies
Nystagmus, Physiologic
Middle Aged
Male
Korea
Humans
Head Movements
Female
Aged

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