RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Analyzing the medical record data of patients with the main symptom of vertigo in "Kaposi M6r" Hospital's Emergency Department. METHOD: Retrospective evaluation of patients's medical history with vertigo related diagnoses according to BNO classification. RESULTS: In the year of 2010, 18 000 patients were presented to ED. In 471 cases the symptoms were vertigo related which makes up 3% of the total. Almost half, 46% of these patients were brought in by ambulance medical car. The ratio of women was twice as high as of the men. One fifth, 19% of patients with vertigo gained admission to the ward and 81% of them were discharged in 24 hours. According to the interviews, 4 types of vertigo have been identified: "whirling style" vertigo in 37% of the cases, dizziness in 33% of the cases, presyncope in 12% and "light headedness" in 9%. The remaining 9% couldn't be classified. CONCLUSION: Vertigo is common presenting symptom in emergency department, however it rarely indicates severe condition. The diagnostic value of vertigo classification based on history and brain CT result in identifying the severity of the background condition is questionable. We found that in recognizing the cases which need prompt intervention, thorough neurological examination and the clarification of the vertigo's circumstances proved to be helpful.
