my daughter is a 28 yr old phd student. on january 31, she became very dizzy while driving and had to stop and have a friend take over the wheel. she was diagnosed with probably 'viral labyrinthitis' after seeing a few doctors who felt that this would go away without complications and did not seem overly cocerned. it is now the middle of june and apart from feeling slight better for a couple of weeks in late april she is extremely dizzy all the time. she also has headaches and her right arm sometimes feels weak. the tip of her middle finger on her left hand sometimes turns blue [usually after she has a shower]. For a few weeks she was able to get around with the family ... however, lights in stores and being in the car tended to worsen her symtoms...at the beginning for about 6 weeks she was extremely fatigued and dizzy...the fatigue got better and the viral diagnosis made sense to us...however, when the symptoms got worse again she saw her gp who sent her to a ent specialist...his words were 'it's not an ear problem'...no explanation beyond this..she is now going to see a neurologist in a couple of days...at the moment she has vertigo all the time and headaches a lot of the time. does this sound like viral labyrinthitis? she is obviously anxious to find out what is wrong and tired of being told to relax....she has absolutely no previous illnesses and was fine before the first episode [apart from having had a cold for a few weeks]...any advice would be appreciated.
Reply: ------------------------------
I would agree with the recommendation to see a neurologist for an evaluation. While the symptom of vertigo (usually described as whirling or some sensation of movement) often points to an inner ear disturbance, labyrinthine dysfunction is not the only cause of such as symptom. I would also not be able to explain right arm weakness or the finger turning blue as resulting from an inner ear problem. It may be that these latter symptoms are unrelated and perhaps there is an inner ear disturbance - the best objective assessments of inner ear balance function outside of a careful neuro-otologic physical examination include: 1) an electronystagmogram (ENG) and/or, if available, 2) a dynamic computerized platform posturography test.
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Steve Dankle, MD
Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Milwaukee, Wis
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