Turkish Archives of Pediatrics
Original Article

How often do neurological disorders lead to dizziness in childhood?

1.

Department of Pediatric Neurology, İstanbul Medeniyet University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey

2.

Depatment of Pediatric Neurology, Ümraniye Training and Research Hospital İstanbul, Turkey

3.

Depatment of Pediatric Neurology, Ordu University Faculty of Medicine, Ordu, Turkey

Turk Arch Pediatr 2021; 56: 249-253
DOI: 10.14744/TurkPediatriArs.2020.43410
Read: 2534 Downloads: 426 Published: 01 May 2021

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the features and differential diagnosis of childhood dizziness and find out the prevalence of neurological diseases in children who were referred to the pediatric neurology outpatient clinic. A secondary aim was to evaluate the outcome of dizziness after 12 months.

Material and Methods: The records of children with a complaint of dizziness that were referred to the pediatric neurology outpatient clinic were retrospectively reviewed, and detailed medical and family history, clinical characteristics, laboratory investigations including vitamin B12 levels, and neuroimaging tests were analyzed. Patients were grouped as neurological disorders and non-neurological disorders. Neurological disorders included vestibular migraine, benign paroxysmal vertigo, and epilepsy, and non-neurological disorders contained the remaining disorders.

Results: The study consisted of 60 children (36 females, 24 males) with a mean age of 11.7±4.1 years. The most common diagnoses were vestibular migraine (21.7%) and orthostatic hypotension (20%). We found that the incidence of neurological diseases was 40% (vestibular migraine, 21.7%; epilepsy, 10%; benign paroxysmal vertigo, 8.3%). When we compared the neurological disorders with non-neurological disorders, there was a significant difference in terms of age at onset and duration of attacks (p=0.001 for both), whereas no significant difference was detected in terms of gender, frequency of attacks, and vitamin B12 levels. We detected ongoing symptoms in 10% of the patients who were diagnosed with vestibular migraine and psychogenic dizziness.

Conclusion: Both non-neurological and neurological diseases are common in etiology of children with dizziness.

Cite this article as: Karatoprak E, Sözen G, Yılmaz K. How often do neurological disorders lead to dizziness in childhood? Turk Arch Pediatr 2021; 56(3): 249-53.

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