Dizziness in a Tertiary Care Centre in Sikkim: Our Experience and Limitations

Dizziness is a common symptom and though most of the causes are benign yet some may be potentially life threatening. Diagnosis can be a challenge sometimes due to lack of dedicated vestibular lab and injudicious use of vestibular suppressant medications. A 2 year retrospective study of the hospital records from September 2014 to August 2016 was done to study the causes of dizziness and the limitations and challenges in the diagnosis. 75 complete records of patients presenting with dizziness were accessed and analysed. 54.7% of the patients were males and most patients were young adults. Most of the cases were benign and Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo was the commonest diagnosed case (20%). Potentially life threatening cases diagnosed were cerebellar infarct and posterior fossa space occupying lesion (5.3%). Complete evaluation of a dizzy patient must be done to arrive at a causal diagnosis. Injudicious use of vestibular sedatives should be discouraged. Proper training and education to the primary care physician should be imparted so that they can adopt a practical approach for evaluation and management of a dizzy person.