Dizziness In A Tertiary Neurological Department： A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background Dizziness is a common and challenging condition among population. There is little published study which surveys the characteristics of dizziness of inpatients in the department of neurology. Objective This study was to investigate the inpatients with dizziness as the chief complaint in a neurology department. Materials and Methods We conducted a retrospective study of inpatients with dizziness attending a tertiary neurological department in Beijing. We audited 211 patients with dizziness as the chief complaint from 1841 patients discharged from our tertiary neurological department. Results The inpatients with dizziness as the chief complaint accounted for 11.5% of all inpatients. Dizziness was more common in women than in men (p=0.004). There were more patients presenting with vertigo (40.8%) and light-headedness (39.8%) than disequilibrium (17.1%) and pre-syncope (2.4%). Nausea (48.3%), vomiting (34.1%), headache (13.3%), walk unsteadily (13.3%) and ear symptoms (12.8%) were the most common accompanying symptoms. Hypertension, diabetes, cerebrovascular diseases, dyslipidemia, and coronary heart disease were the most common diseases in past medical history. Dix-Hallpike test (24.6%) and Romberg’s sign (11.4%) were positive in dizziness patients. Nystagmus (2.4%), vision changes (1.4%) and hearing disorders (8.5%) were relatively rare symptoms. MRI (60.2%), CT (31.8%), carotid duplex ultrasound (30.8%), echocardiography (28.0%) were common auxiliary examination. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (24.2%) and stroke/transient ischemic attack (19.0%) were common causes of dizziness. 97.2% of inpatients with dizziness can be improving after treatment. Conclusion Dizziness was a common and challenging condition. Vertigo and light-headedness were the most common dizziness types. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and stroke/transient ischemic attack were the common dizziness disorders. The prognosis of most patients with dizziness was good.