Citation

Mahmood AN, Abulaban O, Janjua A. BMJ Case Rep. 2019; 12(7): e229849.

Affiliation

ENT Department, Heartlands Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bcr-2019-229849

PMID

31272995

Abstract

Frequent falls and dizziness are common complaints in children. These symptoms can be caused by wide range of underlying pathologies including peripheral vestibular deficits, cardiac disease, central lesions, motor skills delay and psychogenic disorders. We report three paediatric cases who presented with complaints of repeated falls and imbalance. MRI scan revealed underlying brain lesions (frontal lobe arteriovenous malformation, exophytic brain stem glioma and cerebellomedullary angle arachnoid cyst with cerebellar tonsillar ectopia). By reporting these cases, we would like to emphasise the importance of a thorough assessment of children with similar symptoms by detailed clinical history, physical examination and maintaining low threshold for investigations, including radiological imaging. Taking in consideration, the wide range of differential diagnosis, the challenge of obtaining detailed history and difficulty of performing reliable physical examination in this age group. Management of underlying disorders can be medical, surgical or just observational.

© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Language: en

Keywords

CNS cancer; ear, nose and throat/otolaryngology; head and neck cancer; neuroimaging; neurology