How often do neurological disorders lead to dizziness in childhood?

Özet

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the features and differential diagnosis ofchildhood dizziness and find out the prevalence of neurological diseases in children who werereferred 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 referredto the pediatric neurology outpatient clinic were retrospectively reviewed, and detailed medical and family history, clinical characteristics, laboratory investigations including vitamin B12levels, and neuroimaging tests were analyzed. Patients were grouped as neurological disordersand non-neurological disorders. Neurological disorders included vestibular migraine, benignparoxysmal vertigo, and epilepsy, and non-neurological disorders contained the remainingdisorders.Results: The study consisted of 60 children (36 females, 24 males) with a mean age of 11.7±4.1years. 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 neurologicaldisorders with non-neurological disorders, there was a significant difference in terms of ageat 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 ongoingsymptoms in 10% of the patients who were diagnosed with vestibular migraine and psychogenicdizziness.Conclusion: Both non-neurological and neurological diseases are common in etiology of children with dizziness.