Vertigo, dizziness, tinnitus after otobasal fractures
- Authors
- Prof.Dr.med. Claus F. Claussen (Bad Kissingen, Germany)
Eng. Gabor Bencze (Budapest, Hungary)
Dr. med. Lorant Heid (Budapest, Hungary)
Dr. med. Michael Kersebaum (Bad Kissingen, Germany)
Dr. med. Elemer Nagy (Budapest, Hungary) - Proceedings
- XXX Congress of the NES - Oporto - Portugal
- Topics
- Neurootology
Equilibrium
Diseases
Sensology
Hearing
Diseases
Neurootology
Neurology
Diseases
Neurootology
Equilibrium
Sensology
Hearing
Neurootology
Neurology
Neurootology
Sensology - Keywords
- Dizziness, Equilibrium, Neurootological tests, Neurootometric tests, Otobasal fractur, Tinnitus, Vertigo.
- Download
PDF file, 235kB
Abstract
About 15% of temporal bone fractures are produced by blows to the occiput. The fracture line begins in the posterior fossa, at or near the foramen magnum, crosses the petrous ridge through the internal auditory canal and/or the otic capsule. Therefore it is thus called a transverse fracture. In transverse fractures of temporal bone, due to automobile accident or other causes of head injury, the labyrinth is involved more frequently than in longitudinal fractures. Severe vertigo with severe or total hearing loss is not uncommon with such injuries. In milder injuries, labyrinthine “concussion” may occur, with transitory auditory-vestibular symptoms. The force which causes the fracture is so great that it not only results in the fracture of the base of the skull, but may also cause a lesion of the brain stem, resulting in a combined peripheral and central lesion. According to Alexander and Scholl 15% of the patients having suffered this kind of trauma demonstrate signs of cerebral injury and 33% have hearing loss.
61 cases of neurootological patients suffering from sequalae of otobasal fractures (81,97% males, 18,03% females) were evaluated. Out of the 6 principle vertigo-symptoms they suffered from 1,69 signs per patient. 40,98% complained about tinnitus and 52,82% about hearing loss. Due to our experimental neurootometric investigations pathological changes were found in 75,41% of the butterfly calorigrams, 72,13% of the stepping-CCGs and 32,79% on the right and 39,34% of the left ear in bone conduction audiometry.
