Distinguish vestibular disorders and cerebral ischemia

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Huynh An Thien - Neurosurgeon - Department of Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Danang International General Hospital
Vestibular disorders are common diseases in today's society. However, there are still many people who often confuse vestibular disorders with cerebral ischemia.

1. What is vestibular disorder?

Vestibular disorders are diseases caused by damage to the nervous system, ears, heart, eyes, and mental health. In some cases, medication can be the cause of the disorder.
A common symptom in people with vestibular disorders is dizziness. However, to diagnose and locate the lesion accurately, people often divide symptoms into 3 groups:
Dizziness : Hallucinations about the movement of the surrounding environment or oneself, usually is the feeling of spinning or bobbing. Additional symptoms include nausea, sweating, loss of balance, and blurred vision. The cause is usually damage to the peripheral or central nerves of the vestibular system. Syncope: the patient may fall into a state of loss of consciousness or fainting, accompanied by sweating, feeling nauseous, blurred vision. The cause is decreased cerebral perfusion, seen in hypotension, cardiac dysfunction or autonomic reflex. Loss of balance: Feeling unbalanced, unsteady, or drunk. The cause is due to asynchronous loss of information from vestibule, cerebellum, depth sense, eye, extrapyramidal.

2. Distinguish vestibular disorders and cerebral ischemia

Most patients have confusion between these two diseases because cerebral circulatory insufficiency and vestibular disorders have similar signs such as headache, dizziness, dizziness, nausea, but in fact, These two diseases have different causes.
Cerebral circulatory insufficiency, also known as cerebral circulatory disorder, is a state of decreased blood flow to the brain due to chronic diseases, such as hypertension, cerebral vascular sclerosis, heart valve diseases, disorders. arrhythmia, chronic renal failure.
Besides, there are a number of factors that increase the risk of disease such as alcoholism, smoking, stress, being overweight, obese, and sedentary.

Vestibular disorder is a disease that causes an imbalance, causing the patient to have symptoms of dizziness, ringing in the ears, nausea, and very uncomfortable walking.
This is a disease caused by many causes such as poor cerebral circulation, cerebral circulatory disorders, brain infections, acute otitis media and also caused by weather changes. Therefore, cerebral circulatory insufficiency is only one of the factors causing vestibular disorders.

3. Definitive treatment of vestibular disorders

The current treatment of vestibular disorders is mainly medical treatment and absolutely must comply with the doctor's instructions on the use of drugs. doctor's orders, only then can it be effective and prevent recurrence.
Vestibular disorders are easy to occur in office workers, people who sit a lot in cold rooms and are in constant contact with computers.
Because of sitting a lot in a cold room, the cervical spine area is susceptible to cold, long-term constriction of the spinal artery in the basilar body, resulting in lack of blood supply to the brain area, causing disorders. At the same time, this is also the cause of the disease can often recur.
Therefore, in order to prevent vestibular disorders, to avoid recurrence of the disease, we need to avoid sitting a lot in cold rooms, avoid sitting for a long time in front of the computer, should not sit for a long time when doing office work, regularly performing exercises. exercise in the head, neck and neck, regularly do sports...
Drink enough water 2 liters/day, keep a glass of filtered water on the desk to practice the habit of drinking water regularly, to avoid getting too thirsty just drank water. For people with vestibular disorders, they must be careful in their living positions, do not turn their necks suddenly or get up and down too quickly. Reduce stress, stress, when driving, you should sit or lie down immediately if you feel dizzy... Do not smoke because nicotine constricts blood vessels supplying blood to the ears, which can increase signs of disease. vestibular disorders and may cause short-term hypertension.

In addition, for the best support on treatment as well as exercises to improve vestibular disorders, you should consult with leading experts in the field of Neurology.
Department of Neurology - Vinmec Times City International General Hospital is one of the prestigious and effective medical facilities specializing in examination and treatment of diseases related to the central nervous system.
Experienced medical team such as Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chu Hoang Van, Doctor Vu Dung Kien with expertise in the examination and treatment of diseases related to the central nervous system (cranial, meningeal, brain) , blood vessels in the brain, nerves in the skull, pituitary gland, spine, discs, spinal cord) and peripheral nervous system (nerves and ganglia outside the brain and spinal cord).

Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.