Balance disorders are common in adult patients but less usual in the pediatric population. When this symptomatology appears in children it is a cause for concern, both for parents and health-care professionals.
Objectives: To explain the balance disorders in children describing a case series and to discuss the main etiologies found according to age.
Study design: A retrospective, observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was conducted.
Population: Patients aged 1-18 years who consulted because of balance disorders at the otolaryngology department of a pediatric tertiary-care hospital between March 2012 and July 2015.
Results: Two hundred and six patients were included in the study. Median age was 10 years. The most common diagnoses were vestibular migraine in 21.8% of the children, ataxia in 9.22%, benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood in 7.77%, and post-traumatic vertigo in 6.31%.Overall, 61 videonystagmographies- of which 46 were normal - and 55 video head impulse tests - which were normal in 45 and showed abnormalities in the vestibulo-ocular reflex gain in 10 - were performed.
Conclusions: In a child with balance disorders, the medical history and neurotological examination are essential. Vestibular migraine is the most commonly found disorder in every age group, and most of the patients have a family history of migraine. Ancillary studies, especially the video head-impulse test, provide important data to confirm the diagnosis.
Keywords: Balance-disorder; Childhood; Video-head-impulse-test.
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