My husband was perfectly fine until last October when he flipped his semi on its side. The emergency room did not take any x-rays or cts of his head because he was able to give me directions from Ohio (where i was) to Massachusettes (where he was). For the next two weeks he stayed in bed the majority of the time because he was incredibly sore. The only thing he received at the time of the accident was some bruises and a contusion on his elbow. When he started getting up and moving around, he began having dizzy spells. When he first asked his doctor about it he was told that it was his vagus nerve. It didnt get any better so he sent him to an ENT. There he was diagnosed with Labrynthitis. He has not had any successful improvement on any of the medication that was prescribed for him so they took him off. What we are fighting now is workers comp. They say there is no way to link it to the accident even though he was fine until after that day. No doctor will agree with that either. This is because it is normally caused from a virus. Is there anyone out there who has heard of it being caused from trauma to the head? Please let me know. I would appreciate any feedback that i can get about this.
Thankyou

Hi,

Well labs cannot be caused directly by a blow to the head BUT you can get very similiar symptoms which arise from a concussion to the vestibular nerve, it almost mimics labs. Thus far medics believe that labs is caused by a viral infection. You say he has little or no improvement since on set, again this is unfortunately quite common and for some a failure to compensate draws the symptoms out.

In fact if you do a search on the net say dizzyness after head injury, you should find case studies of similiar incidents.

I know there was another person on these boards that had a similiar experince after a ride on a roller coaster which gave her vestibular concussion or something very similiar.

I think your husbands best bet would be to consult with a neuroTologist (not a neurologist) who specialises in inner ear disorders and the brain.

Dizzyness etc can come from both the CNS and the inner ear amoungst other things.

Has your husband had all the tests to establish that it is most deff labs.

Good Luck and welcome to the boards!!

Agree with above and will also add he could have BPPV - look this up on the net - its also commonly caused by accidents.

The dizziness seems v v v likely to be attributed to the crash. The diagnosis of labyrinthitis, I think, has been made incorrectly - though your husband most probably has a problem with his inner ear. xxx

Hi,

Definitely a possibility!


POST-TRAUMATIC VERTIGO
Timothy C. Hain, MD

Head injuries are sustained by 5% of the population annually. Post-traumatic vertigo refers to dizziness that follows a neck or head injury -- while injuries to other parts of the body might in theory be associated with dizziness, in practice this is almost never the case. Patients with head or neck injury may also have loud and disturbing tinnitus (Folmer and Griest, 2003). The literature suggests that recovery occurs in from 3-9 months in most individuals, but that symptoms persist for more than 1 year in 10 to 15%.

Because of the high incidence of litigation associated with post-traumatic vertigo, most clinicians are extremely cautious in making this diagnosis. There are many potential causes of post-traumatic vertigo.

After a head injury, otoconia may be displaced from the utricle and migrate into other parts of the ear, causing dizziness.

Cheers......Scott :cool:

Foomama,

Here's more information for you from:


The Journal of Anxiety Disorders 15 (2001) 9-26.

Head trauma can produce dizziness, especially as a feature of so-called "postconcussion syndrome". This dizziness is often nonspecific and its origin is uncertain. Possibly, a brainstem rather than a cerebral concussion is responsible for dizziness in some patients. A complicating factor in the evaluation of a patient who has suffered from head trauma is that the inner ear or the neck may be damaged in addition to the brain.

A simple demonstration highlights the importance of afferent information from the neck. First, assume that the head is turned to the left. If the body leans forward, the head will move from left to right (in head coordinates). Now, assume that the head is turned to the right. If the body leans forward, the head will move from right to left. Thus, the central nervous system must interpret the signals from the labyrinth in light of the orientation of the head on the torso. Any traumatic injury that impairs the ability of the central nervous system to locate accurately the head on the torso, e.g. a neck injury, can produce dizziness and dysequilibrium.

Patients who have suffered head trauma often provide a very nonspecific and vague description of their dizziness. Vertigo and spinning are rare. More commonly, they describe floating, giddiness, and other nonvertigo, nonspinning terms.

Cheers.....Scott

I feel it could possibly be the stress of your husband's accident that brought
on the Labrynthitis, as I read on several web sites it being related to the
nervous system, I have been seeing a homepath since Jan 2006 who has
taken this into consideration with remedies she has given me and have
found a definate improvement, was he stress before the accident about anything
which could it turn with having the accident aswell resulted in the labrynthitis.
Hope this makes some kind of sense!