Vertigo
What is vertigo?
Vertigo is a type of dizziness that makes you feel like you’re moving when you’re actually still, or that the room is spinning around you. The sensation may go away after a few seconds or last for days, making daily life a challenge. Vertigo is a symptom of many conditions, including those that affect your inner ear or brain. Pinpointing and treating the cause of your vertigo can help stop the feeling of movement.
Penn Medicine doctors work together to diagnose and treat vertigo. Our nationally recognized audiology, hearing, and balance specialists, including at the Balance and Dizziness Center, have decades of experience caring for people with balance disorders. If your symptoms are related to a brain condition, our leading neurologists can evaluate you and provide effective treatments that help you regain your steadiness.
What is the difference between vertigo and dizziness?
Dizziness is a broad term that includes feeling faint, light-headed, or woozy. Vertigo refers to the specific sensation of feeling as though you or the room is moving.
Types of vertigo
The type of vertigo depends on whether it’s caused by a problem with your inner ear or your brain. Knowing which type you have can guide your treatment.
Most people with vertigo have peripheral vertigo. This type is related to conditions of the inner ear or the nerve between your ear and brainstem, called the vestibular nerve. The inner ear and vestibular nerves are both involved in helping you keep your balance.
This less common type of vertigo occurs with a brain disorder, like migraine or stroke. It can also be caused by blood vessel diseases.
What does vertigo feel like?
You may feel as if you’re spinning, swaying, or tilting even though you and your environment are still. The feeling can occur along with imbalance, trouble walking, nausea, vomiting, or motion sickness. Some people also experience jerking eye movements, hearing loss, or ringing in their ears. In children, you may notice that they prefer to lie still instead of being active, have trouble with motor skills, and experience delayed milestones, like walking.
Some bouts of vertigo symptoms go away quickly but come back. For some people, vertigo is constant.
Why does vertigo happen?
Several conditions can cause vertigo symptoms. They differ depending on what type of vertigo you have.
Common conditions that can cause peripheral vertigo include:
- Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), which is caused by the inner ear’s crystals moving out of place
- Inner ear infections, like vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis
- Certain medications, including antibiotics and diuretics
- Meniere’s disease
- Traumatic brain injury
- Pressure on the vestibular nerve from noncancerous tumors
Central vertigo may be caused by:
- Migraines
- Low blood pressure when you stand up quickly, called orthostatic hypotension
- Stroke
- Multiple sclerosis
- Some medications, like antiseizure drugs
Diagnosing vertigo and its cause
Your doctor will ask about your symptoms and give you a physical exam. The evaluation may include doing certain head movements. You may need to have hearing and eye tests, along with other diagnostic tests that can determine the cause of your vertigo.
Treatments that bring back your balance
Sometimes vertigo gets better on its own. Your doctor can let you know how to reduce your symptoms, like sitting down as soon as you feel vertigo and getting up slowly. BPPV may improve with repositioning maneuvers that involve specific head movements guided by your health care provider during your office visit. This helps to move the crystals that are causing vertigo back into place. Your doctor can also give you exercises designed for people with BPPV to do at home.
Depending on the cause of your vertigo, your doctor may recommend medications or physical therapy that can restore your balance. Treating underlying conditions, like infections, can also improve your symptoms.
Skilled, supportive vertigo care
Penn Medicine’s specialists are experts in vertigo care. We offer the full scope of advanced dizziness testing to diagnose common and complex balance disorders. If needed, our neurologists can also do a full workup to evaluate your vertigo.
Your care is led by a team of experienced specialists who create a treatment plan based on what you need to feel steady again. If your treatment includes rehabilitation, our experts work with you to improve your balance so that you can safely do the things you love.