Semont liberatory maneuver is the most successful therapy for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and improves patients' quality of life. Diagnostic and therapeutic maneuvers are easy to perform and should be part of the medical knowledge of every general practitioner and geriatrician.

This prospective study aims to evaluate the efficacy of stapedotomy in relation to age. Eighty-four ears of 82 consecutive patients who underwent stapedotomy were studied. Patients were divided into five groups according to their age. In each patient, we evaluated the pre- and postoperative auditory thresholds, according to the Committee on Hearing and Equilibrium of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery guidelines. Statistically significant (P < 0.05) differences between the pre- and postoperative air conduction thresholds were observed in all groups. Statistically significant reductions of air-bone gap were observed at lower-medium frequencies (250, 500 and 1000 Hz) in the elderly as well as in the younger patients. We did not find a higher susceptibility of the inner ear to surgical trauma in the elderly in comparison to the younger patients. Our data show that stapedotomy results in older adults are comparable to those obtained in the younger, without an increased incidence of complications.

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We conclude that VEMPs are a clinically useful tool in the postoperative follow-up of patients with an EMS.

Antiphospholipid antibodies are acquired circulating immunoglobulins that interact with phospholipids. These factors may manifest anticoagulant properties in vitro, interfering with phospholipid-dependent coagulation tests. They are not, however, associated with a hemorrhagic diathesis. Indeed, far from exerting the anticoagulant properties they possess in vitro, they are associated with episodes of thromboembolism, systemic and cerebral. We report the clinical and instrumental findings in 7 patients with ischemic stroke and circulating antiphospholipid antibodies classifiable as antiphospholipid antibodies syndrome.