Head trauma: Hearing loss and dizziness

Objective: Because the physicians who care for patients with head trauma may be family practitioners or internists, this article provides these physicians some knowledge of the causes and patho-physiology of such trauma with respect to neurotologic sequelae to aid in their decisions to seek consultation with neurotologists and otoneurologists in diagnosis and management. Methods: This article reviews the literature concerning differential diagnosis, appropriate evaluation, acid possible treatments of patients who exhibit hearing loss and dizziness after head trauma, whiplash injuries, or both, I also relate those findings to my extensive experience with such neurotologic problems. Findings: The findings are grouped according to injuries that cause dizziness, including trauma to the brain stem-eighth nerve complex, the semicircular canals (labyrinthine concussion), benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, Meniere's syndrome-vestibular symptoms, perilymphatic fistula-vestibular symptoms, and cervical vertigo; and those that cause hearing loss, including trauma to the brain, eighth nerve, middle ear, cochlear concussion, Meniere's syndrome, and perilymphatic fistula.