BPPV / Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo

What is it?
BPPV is a condition of the inner ear balance organ whereby some of your calcium carbonate crystals in your inner ear have become dislodged from your Utricle and enter one or more of the semicircular canals.

Symptoms?
BPPV can cause vertigo “seeing the room spinning” lasting for less than 1- 2minutes, dizziness, imbalance, nausea and/or vomiting. How is it diagnosed? A Dix-Hallpike and Roll Test will enable us to identify which canal the calcium carbonate crystals are loose in. These assessments should also be paired with a thorough Vestibular Assessment including an oculomotor assessment and infrared goggle assessment which allow the clinician to view the patients’ eyes with and with/without fixation.

What are the main treatment options?

• Modified Epley manoeuvre for Posterior or Anterior canal BPPV.

• Particle Repositioning Manoeuvre or BBQ Roll for Horizontal canal BPPV.

• There are other manoeuvre’s that can be performed if these are unsuccessful.

What are the post manoeuvre instructions?

• We advise patients to try and not sleep on the side we treated for a couple of nights.

• Do not lie flat. Have your head elevated. (You can have a pillow under your shoulders and 2 under your head to allow that elevation)

• Avoid extreme bending/ tilting your head sideways or backwards for the rest of the day.

• Not every clinician will give post manoeuvre instructions but with some of our more repetitive cases we still tend to lean on the side of caution at least for the first couple of days.

Check out our amazing vestibular and face physiotherapist Rebecca for more information or help with BPPV.