The ‘HEAD THRUST TEST’ for acute vertigo diagnosis

Dizziness and vertigo is a common presentation to the emergency department.

This month in ‘Medical Talk’, we describe the Head Thrust test as a means of differentiation between vestibular neuritis and vertebrobasilar insufficiency.

We also look at other causes of vertigo including benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, meniere’s disease, labyrinthitis, perilymph fistula, CNVIII and cerebellopontine angle tumours, cerebellar haemorrhage and infarction, lateral medullary infarction, multiple sclerosis and basilar migraine.