Assessment and management of vertigo and dizziness among older persons

Extract

Vertigo and dizziness are common problems in older patients visiting primary health care centres. Dizziness is often used as a non-specific term to describe many sensations, including vertigo, presyncope, disequilibrium and lightheadedness. In another sense, dizziness can be described more specifically as a feeling of unsteadiness or a mild intoxication, or as if the ground is rocking, or the affected person has to take side-steps to keep balance. Vertigo, by comparison, is often described as a feeling of rotation; the room or surroundings are spinning around like a carousel. Presyncope is often described as sensation of impending fainting or sense of falling. Lightheadedness is a much more vague description of dizziness, difficult to define. Disequilibrium, on the other hand, can be described almost in the same terms as dizziness: a feeling of unsteadiness or loss of balance.