Pitfalls

Common pitfalls include:

• Mistaking ‘dizziness’ due to hypotension or other pre-syncopal causes for true vertigo.
• Mistaking a life-threatening central cause of vertigo, for example cerebellar haemorrhage, as a benign peripheral cause such as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, which may result in a patient being discharged inappropriately
• Misdiagnosing rare cases of isolated central vertigo as vestibular neuritis, e.g. central cerebellar infarction. This can avoided by paying close attention to the patient’s history and risk factors, the characterisation of the patient’s nystagmus and a full assessment of cerebellar function