Dizziness, Imbalance, and Whiplash

Eighteen patients were evaluated for dizziness and imbalance resulting from whiplash associated disorder. Assessment consisted of standard caloric testing and Computerized Dynamic Posturography [CDP]. Although the standard vestibular tests showed no abnormalities in any of these patients, thirteen of them had abnormalities on CDP. The concept of dizziness is variously attributed to problems from the neck, brainstem or bloodflow to the brain and is ill defined in the literature. In our patients, efforts were made to delineate specifically the patient's complaints by careful history, which included anecdotal problems the patient reported that were recognized as possibly coming from the balance system of the inner ear. Dizziness may be attributable to a vestibular site of lesion, with the CDP results supporting a provisional diagnosis that somehow implicates the balance system of the inner ear.