[Clinical characteristics of vestibular migraine: considerations in a series of 41 patients].

INTRODUCTION: After years of debate about its being approached from headaches and its denomination, vestibular migraine has recently been included in the research appendix of the 3rd edition of the International Headache Classification.

AIM: To analyse the characteristics of a series of patients with vestibular migraine who visited because of headaches.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Our sample consisted of patients who were attended in a headache unit between January 2014 and December 2015. The demographic variables and the characteristics of both migraine and vestibular symptoms were considered, and cases with other otorhinolaryngological conditions were excluded.

RESULTS: The sample was finally made up of 41 patients (11 males, 30 females) with a mean age of 31.8 ± 13.3 years at the time they were included in the study. Sixteen patients (39%) met criteria for chronic migraine and two (4.9%) presented visual auras. The vestibular symptoms were considered severe in eight cases (19.5%) and occurred in 74.6% of the migraine attacks. Vertigo was described as internal in 18 cases (43.9%), external in 22 (53.7%) and mixed in one case (2.4%). The most frequent symptom was positional vertigo (n = 25; 61%), followed by that induced by head movements (n = 18; 43.9%) and spontaneous (n = 15; 36.6%). Accompanying symptoms included tinnitus (n = 12; 29.3%) and a feeling of fullness in the ear (n = 8; 19.5%).

CONCLUSION: It is not uncommon to identify symptoms consistent with vestibular migraine in patients who visit a headache unit; they are patients whose day-to-day activities are not usually affected by their vertigo.