Introduction
Vertigo is a very common and unspecific symptom, which presents many challenges and can be traced back to numerous harmless and serious causes. Vertigo can occur in many different forms and is often used synonymously with dizziness and discomfort. A mild form of vertigo is often a harmless symptom. Warning signs such as fainting, paralysis, chest pain or shortness of breath, for example, can indicate dangerous diseases as the underlying cause. Along with dizziness and vertigo, vertigo is just one of the many forms of the symptom that make the person concerned feel “like on a merry-go-round”.
There are these causes of rotary vertigo
- Diseases of the vestibular organ
- Fluctuations in blood pressure due to lack of fluids, sugar or sleep
- Functional disorders of the heart such as cardiac arrhythmia or heart defects
- Blood diseases with blood deficiency
- Neurological disorders due to circulatory disorders or strokes
- Muscular complaints during a cervical spine syndrome
- Mental illnesses like depression or anxiety attacks
- Dizziness caused by medication or noxious substances such as alcohol and nicotine
- Hormonal fluctuations, for example during pregnancy
Diseases of the equilibrium organ
Positional vertigo is a relatively rare disease of the inner ear. It involves small granules in the fluid of the vestibular organ. Shifts in the fluid cause signals to be sent to the brain when the body moves, which inform it of the position of the body.
However, this sense of balance is disturbed by the granules, so that movements suddenly cause severe dizziness. Nausea can also follow the violent attacks of vertigo. However, the therapy of positional vertigo is easy to perform and uncomplicated under medical supervision.
With the help of a simple positioning maneuver, the granules can be removed from the organ of equilibrium so that the symptoms immediately subside. Meniere’s disease is also a disease of the organ of equilibrium, in which the fluid inside the organ malfunctions. This fluid is produced in increased quantities, resulting in attacks of rotational vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, nausea and vomiting, which can last for hours.
In many cases, both ears can even be affected by the disease. In acute attacks, bed rest and the taking of symptomatic medication is indicated. In the long term, however, certain medications can reduce and in some cases completely prevent recurrences of seizures.
Inflammation of the inner ear is comparatively rare and can be triggered by various pathogens. Viral and bacterial pathogens in particular can settle in the inner ear and cause inflammation. The disease is often preceded by inflammation of the middle ear or an infection of the respiratory tract mucous membranes.
In the inner ear, there is a cochlea and an organ of equilibrium on each side. The inflammation causes these organs to malfunction, which may initially manifest itself as slight hearing loss and difficulty walking. In the course of time, this leads to a severe rotary vertigo with nausea and vomiting.
Therapy should be started as early as possible to prevent long-term damage to the sensitive organs in the inner ear. Inflammation of the middle ear can also cause vertigo with hearing loss. This is an inflammation of the mucous membranes of the tympanic cavity, which contains the ossicles.
It often occurs in combination with infections of the upper respiratory tract and pharynx, from where the pathogens can ascend through the ear trumpet from the pharynx to the middle ear. Especially children who have a very short auditory tube are often affected by middle ear infections, which in addition to hearing disorders and dizziness, also cause fever and severe earaches. As the respiratory infection is treated and subsides, the middle ear infection also slowly heals.
In some cases, the inflammation may break through into the inner ear with damage to the cochlea and the organs of balance. In rare cases, complications or permanent damage with long-term hearing loss and balance problems as well as vertigo occur.The cholesteatoma is a special form of middle ear inflammation that is not caused by pathogens such as viruses or bacteria, but by a chronic, permanent irritation. The uppermost skin of the external auditory canal has different cells than the mucous membrane of the middle ear.
For various reasons, the cells of the external auditory canal can grow into the middle ear and cause a permanent stimulus here. This leads to a chronic inflammation with a foul-smelling discharge from the ear. In addition, there is pain, vertigo, tinnitus, increasing hearing loss and in complicated cases, brain nerve damage such as facial paralysis. In the long term, the foreign cells must be surgically removed before inflammation of the inner ear, the cranial nerves, the meninges or the organs of equilibrium can occur.
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