Vertigo and Dizziness in the Emergency Department

Understanding three peripheral vestibular disorders-vestibular neuritis, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, and Meniere's disease-is the key to the evaluation and management of vertigo and dizziness presentations in the emergency department. Each of these benign disorders is a common cause of a broad category of dizziness presentation. In addition, each of these disorders has characteristic features that allow for a bedside diagnosis. An effective strategy for "ruling-out" a serious disorder, such as stroke, is "ruling-in" a peripheral vestibular disorder. In this article a focus is on the key features of these disorders.