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Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo
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Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is the most common cause of peripheral vertigo, meaning vertigo that starts in the ear and not in the brain: it accounts for more than half of cases. Vertigo, here, means feeling that you are spinning or that your surroundings are spinning when there is no real movement.
To understand it you have to look at the inner ear. Each ear has three semicircular canals, three small curved tubes set in three planes perpendicular to one another, like the three corners of a box. Inside, head rotation shifts the cupula, a gelatinous structure, and that shift stimulates hair cells, cells with tiny hairs, which tell the brain the speed and acceleration of the head's movement.
In this condition otoliths, the tiny crystals of the inner ear, come loose. Some end up floating freely inside the canal, and that is called canalithiasis; others stay stuck to the cupula, and that is called cupulolithiasis. It is like a loose pebble inside a bubble level: the bubble moves without you moving the level.
In brief
Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is the most common cause of peripheral vertigo and accounts for more than half of cases.
Each inner ear has three perpendicular semicircular canals whose hair cells tell the brain the speed and acceleration of head rotation.
In this condition loose otoliths sit inside the canal, called canalithiasis, or stick to the cupula, called cupulolithiasis.
A loose pebble inside a bubble level: the bubble moves without you moving the level.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingBenign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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