[Alterations of balance in patients under 16 years of age distributed by age groups]

To evaluate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of children with altered balance, as well as to establish the level of importance of the audiological, balance and imaging studies in the diagnosis of infantile vestibular pathology.

We report a descriptive, retrospective and non-randomized study performed at the Otorhinolaryngology Department of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela (Santiago de Compostela University Hospital, Santiago de Compostela, Spain). The study included 125 patients under 16 years of age who consulted due to alterations in their balance over a period of twelve years (1996 to 2007); they are distributed into three groups based on age: 0 to 5, 6 to 10, and 11 to 15 years.

Childhood benign paroxysmal vertigo (64 %) is the most frequent syndrome in our series, with 32.5 % of patients associating common migraine. Together with diagnoses of infantile positional vertigo and psychogenic vertigo, was more frequently found in the 11 to 15 year-old age group (P< .05). Age, gender and the results of the imaging studies (computerized tomography of the brain and magnetic resonance of the head) were not related to the presentation of associated migraine nor to the diagnosis (P>.05).

Clinical history and the neuro-otological examination are the key elements of the diagnosis of infantile vestibular pathology; it is also important to standardize and group patients by age. Imaging studies only contribute high diagnostic performance in children presenting neurological symptoms, persistent headache or who have sustained head trauma.