Unilateral Vestibular dysfunction

What is it? A Unilateral Vestibular Dysfunction is when one of your balance organs in your inner ear is not working how it should. It can occur suddenly due to several different reasons: inflammation/ damage to the nerve from a viral, bacterial, trauma/injury, ischaemic and or unknown event.

Symptoms? Vertigo, Imbalance, Nausea and Vomiting that can occur for 24-48 hours. If there is any auditory dysfunction/hearing loss this will need to be reviewed as soon as possible by an ENT/Audiologist and Neurologist. Sudden hearing loss is a medical emergency.

How long do symptoms last?

Our body can take time to adapt to a Vestibular Event. You should notice within 4 days your blurred vision/ moving vision should settle down. Following this, you may notice your symptoms when you do sudden head movements, complex tasks and/or when you are in busy locations. This will slowly improve as your Vestibular System adapts. 

How is it diagnosed? Thorough vestibular assessment, Caloric Testing, Video Head Impulse Testing and Cervical and Ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials. If you are admitted into Emergency they will conduct cardiac and neurological assessments to rule out any other cause for your symptoms.

What are the treatment options?

• Initial 24-48hours antivirals and/or steroids

• Anti- nausea medication initially but try and reduce this as soon as possible

• Movement- as tolerated. Being sedentary is more adverse.

• Vestibular Rehabilitation- characterised by specialised and individualised exercises. The idea of vestibular rehabilitation is to ensure enough retinal slip/ “error” , whilst the head is moving, to enable neurological compensation.