title: Comprehensive vestibular and balance testing in the dizzy pediatric population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the spectrum of balance disease in a large population of children presenting to a tertiary care vestibular and balance laboratory.
  
  
  METHODS
  Case series with chart review.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tertiary care pediatric hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Results of audiometric, vestibular, and balance tests and final diagnosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective review of audiometric, vestibular, balance testing, and final diagnosis from a patient database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between September 2003 and September 2007, 132 children were evaluated at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children Vestibular Disorders Program. Sixty-nine of the patients were boys and 63 were girls. The average age was 9.7 ± 5.0 years (range, 1-17 years). Although not all were able to complete the entire test battery (99 children completed at least 50% of the tests in the protocol), a diagnosis was achieved in most cases. The most common diagnoses were peripheral vestibulopathy (29.5%), migraine/benign recurrent vertigo of childhood (24.2%), motor/developmental delay (10.6%), traumatic brain injury (9.8%), and central nervous system structural lesion (9.1%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Peripheral vestibular deficits and migraine disease account for most of the pathology in the pediatric population. With a multidisciplinary approach, diagnosis of the source of vertigo and imbalance is possible in most children.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Delaware 19899, USA. roreilly@nemours.org
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: O'Reilly
authors.forename: Jewell
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Greywoode
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morlet
authors.forename: Freeman
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Henley
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Church
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beaman
authors.forename: Anne Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zwicky
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bean
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Falcheck
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004244:Dizziness / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014724:Vestibular Function Tests / Q000379:methods*; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000503:physiopathology*