Vertigo in children

Zusammenfassung

The sensation of vertigo, that is to say, an erroneous perception of movement, can be due, in the child as in the adult, to an anomaly in the normal function of the three major sensory systems that supply this information: the visual system, the vestibular system and the proprioceptive-somesthetic system. When vertigo appears in children, both parents and physicians panic. Vertigo and equilibrium problems often elicit an excessive number of prescriptions for useless and costly functional testing (such as magnetic resonance imagery, MRI, scanners) without helping the decision for an adapted therapeutic treatment. This is due, in large part, to anxiety resulting from a lack of knowledge of a clear diagnostic protocol capable of detecting a cerebral tumor in the posterior fossa, a diagnosis that is critical, albeit rare (accounting for less than 1 % of vertigos in children). What then to do for a vertiginous child?