A 28-year-old female diver presented with dizziness and difficulty clearing her left ear whilst scuba diving. Her pure-tone audiometry and tympanometry were normal. Testing of Eustachian tube function revealed tubal stenosis. Video-oculography revealed a predominantly torsional nystagmus while the patient was in the lordotic position. Fistula signs were positive. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of the temporal bone revealed a diagnosis of bilateral superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SCDS). Cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) testing showed that the amplitude of the cVEMP measured from her left ear was larger than that from the right. In electronystagmography (ENG), nose-pinched Valsalva manoeuvres caused eye movements to be mainly directed counterclockwise with a vertical component. Tullio phenomenon was also positive for both ears. SCDS patients tend to be misdiagnosed and misunderstood; common misdiagnoses in these cases are alternobaric vertigo (AV), inner ear barotrauma, and inner-ear decompression sickness. It is difficult to diagnose vertigo attacks after scuba diving as SCDS; however, when the patient develops sound- and/or pressure-induced vertical-torsional nystagmus, HRCT should be conducted to confirm a diagnosis of SCDS.
Keywords: Case report; ENT; Ear barotrauma; Injuries; Inner ear; Radiological imaging; Scuba diving; Valsalva manoeuvre.