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Abstract: The peripheral vestibulopathy in children is a difficult entity to diagnose, due to the subjectivity of related symptoms and signs, as well as the children's incapacity for characterizing them. Consequently, the disease is underestimated in the pediatric population. Aiming at the better knowledgement of the current concepts regarding diagnose of vertigo, we studied 101 children with diagnosis of peripheral vestibular disorders. They were assisted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the University of São Pauto School of Medicine and in our private clinic, during the period of January 1990 to Apri11994. The age ranged from 4 months to 17 years old. There were 38 girls and 53 boys. The most prevalent symptoms were: headache (84.6%); dizzines (84.4%), behaviour disturbances (84.2%), cinetosis (77.3%); sleep disorders (77.1%), and others. The most frequent sign was ear diseases in 60.0% of the cases. The most common parents medicai history were: migraine headache (90%), Cesarean section (71.4%), perinatal hypoxia (43.0%). In terms of diagnostic tests, electronystagmography showed a positive result in more than 90% of the cases, between pendular rotating-decreasing test or caloric stimulation. The choise of the exam was made in agreement with the age and the child's collaboration. The rotating test showed larger diagnostic sensibility (72.0%). We conclude that peripheral vestibulopathy in the childhood presents different clinicai features from those found in adults, and should always be included in the differential diagnosis of balance disturbances in this age group.
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