Low recurrence rate of vestibular neuritis: A long-term follow-up

Acute unilateral vestibular neuritis ( VN) is a common cause of peripheral vestibular vertigo and accounts for about 8% ( 448 of 5,911) of patients who present to our neurologic dizziness unit. Molecular biologic studies have presented strong evidence that VN is caused by a reactivation of latent herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) in the vestibular ganglia.(1) Only one small retrospective study is available, in which three of 18 patients had recurrent VN in the same ear.(2) Because this relapse rate of 17% contradicts our own clinical experience, we conducted a retrospective study on 148 patients. Three major questions were posed: 1) How many patients had had a relapse? 2) Was the relapse ipsior contralateral to the initially affected ear? 3) Had the patients had Bell's palsy or sudden hearing loss?