title: Posttraumatic dizziness and vertigo.
abstract: Traumatic brain injury is an increasingly common public health issue, with the mild variant most clinically relevant for this chapter. Common causes of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) include motor vehicle accidents, athletics, and military training/deployment. Despite a range of clinically available testing platforms, diagnosis of mTBI remains challenging. Symptoms are primarily neurosensory, and include dizziness, hearing problems, headaches, cognitive, and sleep disturbances. Dizziness is nearly universally present in all mTBI patients, and is the easiest symptom to objectify for diagnosis. Aside from a thorough history and physical exam, in the near future specialized vestibular function tests will be key to mTBI diagnosis. A battery of oculomotor (antisaccade, predictive saccade) and vestibular tasks (head impulse test) has been demonstrated to sensitively and specifically identify individuals with acute mTBI. Vestibular therapy and rehabilitation have shown improvements for mTBI patients in cognitive function, ability to return to activities of daily living, and ability to return to work. Dizziness, as a contributor to short- and long-term disability following mTBI, is ultimately crucial not only for diagnosis but also for treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA; University of Medicine Sports Medicine and Performance Institute, Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Szczupak
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA; University of Medicine Sports Medicine and Performance Institute, Miami, FL, USA; Department of Neurological Surgery, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA. Electronic address: michael.hoffer@miami.edu.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Hoffer
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Departments of Otolaryngology, Neurobiology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Balaban
mesh_terms: D000070642:Brain Injuries, Traumatic / Q000150:complications*; D004244:Dizziness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D006801:Humans; D014717:Vertigo / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D014724:Vestibular Function Tests
keywords: antisaccade; head impulse test; mild traumatic brain injury; oculomotor testing; posttraumatic dizziness; posttraumatic vertigo; predictive saccade; vestibular rehab; vestibular testing