Clinical Statistics of Patients with Dizziness and Vertigo at Tokushima University Hospital

In the present study, we enrolled a total of 506 patients who visited the Department of Otolaryngology Head Neck Surgery, Tokushima University Hospital, complaining of vertigo or dizziness between January 2017 and December 2020. Patients were diagnosed based on the diagnostic criteria prescribed by the Japan Society for Equilibrium Research. The age distribution of the patients showed a peak in the seventh to eighth decade. The most common peripheral vestibular disorder was benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (36%), followed by Meniere’s disease (11%). Central vestibular disorder was diagnosed in 11% of patients. The percentage of patients in whom the diagnosis remained unknown was 7%, which was lower than the percentage of 21% determined in our previous survey conducted in 2005. The new diagnostic criteria for vestibular migraine, persistent postural-perceptual dizziness, and vestibular paroxysmia, and the new equilibrium function tests, including vestibular evoked myogenic potential and video head impulse test were useful for differential diagnosis.