title: Bedside examination.
abstract: In most dizzy patients a limited selection of bedside tests, together with the history, is adequate to establish a differential diagnosis and select the next diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. A set of basic bedside tests that should be applied in every patient with vertigo or imbalance allows identifying: (1) patients who need immediate referral for further assessment and treatment; (2) patients with nonthreatening disorders for which treatment can be started without more detailed testing; (3) patients with benign paroxysmal vertigo, in whom a detailed work-up is not required and who can immediately be treated with an appropriate particle-repositioning maneuver; and (4) patients who need a comprehensive neuro-otologic and neurologic work-up. Additional neuro-otologic bedside tests help to further refine the differential diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Center for Vertigo and Neurological Vision Disorders, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: dstraumann@access.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Straumann
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000067716:Point-of-Care Testing
keywords: Romberg test; alternating cover test; bedside examination; dynamic visual acuity; head impulse test; provocation maneuvers; skew deviation; spontaneous nystagmus; vibration sense