- Vertigo
- Aside from being the name of a classic 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film (with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak), vertigo is a feeling that you are dizzily turning around or that things are dizzily turning about you. Vertigo is usually due to a problem with the inner ear. Vertigo can also be caused by vision problems. The word “vertigo” comes from the Latin “vertere”, to turn + the suffix “-igo”, a condition = a condition of turning about). Vertigo is medically distinct from dizziness, lightheadedness, and unsteadiness. See: {{}}Dizziness, Lightheadedness, and Unsteadiness.
* * *1. A sensation of spinning or whirling motion. V. implies a definite sensation of rotation of the subject (subjective v.) or of objects about the subject (objective v.) in any plane. 2. Imprecisely used as a general term to describe dizziness. [L. v. (vertigin-), dizziness, fr. verto, to turn]- aural v. 1. v. caused by disease of the internal ear or pressure of cerumen on the drum membrane; 2. nonspecific term for v. caused by labyrinthine disorders.- benign paroxysmal positional v. a recurrent, brief form of positional v. occurring in clusters; believed to result from displaced remnants of utricular otoconia. SYN: cupulolithiasis.- benign positional v. brief attacks of paroxysmal v. and nystagmus that occur solely with certain head movements or positions, e.g., with neck extension; due to labyrinthine dysfunction. SYN: positional v. of Bárány, postural v. (1).- chronic v. SYN: status vertiginosus.- epidemic v. SYN: vestibular neuronitis.- height v. dizziness experienced when looking down from a great height or in looking up at a high building or cliff. SYN: vertical v. (1).- horizontal v. dizziness experienced on lying down.- hysterical v. a sensation of dizziness, as from a whirling motion, whose etiology is psychosomatic.- lateral v. dizziness caused by watching rows of vertical objects ( e.g., telegraph poles, trees, and fences) from the window of a fast-moving vehicle.- paralyzing v. SYN: vestibular neuronitis.- physiologic v. SYN: space sickness.- positional v. of Bárány SYN: benign positional v..- postural v. 1. SYN: benign positional v.. 2. light-headedness that appears particularly in elderly people with change of position, usually from lying or sitting to standing; due to orthostatic hypotension.- sham-movement v. dizziness accompanied by an impression that the body is rotating or that objects are rotating about the body.
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1) a disordered state which is associated with various disorders (as of the inner ear) and in which the individual or the individual's surroundings seem to whirl dizzily see OBJECTIVE VERTIGO, SUBJECTIVE VERTIGO compare DIZZINESS2) disordered vertiginous movement as a symptom of disease in lower animals also a disease (as gid) causing this* * *
n.a disabling sensation in which the affected individual feels that either he himself or his surroundings are in a state of constant movement. It is most often a spinning sensation but there may be a feeling that the ground is tilting. It is a symptom of disease either in the labyrinth of the inner ear or in the vestibular nerve or its nuclei in the brainstem, which are involved in the sense of balance. See also benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.* * *
ver·ti·go (vurґtĭ-go) [L. vertigo] an illusory sense that either the environment or one's own body is revolving; it may result from diseases of the internal ear or may be due to disturbances of the vestibular centers or pathways in the central nervous system. The term is sometimes erroneously used to mean any form of dizziness. Cf. dysequilibrium. vertiginous adj
Medical dictionary. 2011.
