Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo without nystagmus: diagnosis and treatment

Nystagmus tests to diagnose BPPV are still relevant in the clinical evaluation of BPPV. However, in everyday practice, there are cases of vertigo caused by head movements, which do not follow this sign in the Dix-Hallpike maneuver and the turn test.

To characterize BPPV without nystagmus and treatment for it.

A non-systematic review of diagnosis and treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) without nystagmus in the PubMed, SciELO, Cochrane, BIREME, LILACS and MEDLINE databases in the years between 2001 and 2009.

We found nine papers dealing with BPPV without nystagmus, whose diagnoses were based solely on clinical history and physical examination. The treatment of BPPV without nystagmus was made by Epley maneuvers, Sémont, modified releasing for posterior semicircular canal and Brandt-Daroff exercises.

From 50% to 97.1% of the patients with BPPV without nystagmus had symptom remission, while patients with BPPV with nystagmus with symptom remission ranged from 76% to 100%. These differences may not be significant, which points to the need for more studies on BPPV without nystagmus.