This Podcast Will Make Your Head Spin

Guest: Scott D. Eggers, M.D. (@sdze)

Host: Darryl S. Chutka, M.D. (@ChutkaMD)

The complaint of dizziness is a common symptom our patients experience. It has a variety of causes; fortunately, most of them are benign. Despite the fact we frequently see patients with this medical concern, we still struggle evaluating them. Part of the difficulty is that dizziness means different things to different people and the cause of dizziness can be caused by disorders in one of several organ systems. To help us evaluate dizziness, Dr. Scott Eggers, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic, reviews why dizziness is so difficult to evaluate and how we should evaluate a patient who complains of dizziness. We also explore the most common causes of dizziness including benign positional vertigo and vestibular neuritis. Finally, Dr. Eggers reviews symptoms that are suspicious for an ominous cause of dizziness.

Specific topics discussed:

• Why dizziness is difficult to evaluate
• How to evaluate the complaint of dizziness
• Most common causes of dizziness
• Dizziness symptoms which are ominous for serious disease
• Description of benign positional vertigo
• Description of vestibular neuritis
• Description of vestibular migraines

Connect with the Mayo Clinic’s School of Continuous Professional Development online at https://ce.mayo.edu/ or on Twitter @MayoMedEd.