Acute vertigo: getting the diagnosis right

### What you need to know Dizziness is a common presentation to emergency departments and primary care.12 It is defined as the sensation of disturbed or impaired spatial orientation without a false or distorted sense of motion.3 The estimated prevalence of dizziness in a general practice community sample varies across studies4 but is approximately 20%.56 Its prevalence increases with age. While patients often use the word “dizziness” to describe their symptoms, this encapsulates a variety of distinct symptom clusters, including vertigo (box 1). Vertigo is a specific type of dizziness defined as the sensation of self motion when no self motion is occurring or the sensation of distorted self motion during an otherwise normal head movement.3 Acute vertigo represents up to 5% of all admissions to the emergency department.7 Box 1 ### Specific definitions that are often included under the term “dizziness”RETURN TO TEXT