Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us

Clinical Medicine Journal

  • ClinMed Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About ClinMed
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
RCP Journals
Home
  • Log in
  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us
Advanced

Clinical Medicine Journal

clinmedicine Logo
  • ClinMed Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About ClinMed
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

Response

Joel Abbott
Download PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.16-6-608
Clin Med December 2016
Joel Abbott
Wrexham Maelor Hospital, Wrexham, UK
Roles: geriatric medicine specialty registrar
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
Loading

Editor – We thank the correspondent for their letter regarding our recent article.1 We acknowledge the limitations to our study and its position as a pilot study, with wider plans for larger scale research in the area. In the first instance, the paper was submitted for publication in Clinical Medicine to highlight a possible gap and subsequently improve clinical practice.

It is well known that most falls are multifactorial and, furthermore, that benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) significantly increases a patient's risk of falling.2 As the correspondent's letter stated, we cannot assume causality simply by the presence of BPPV, nor can we discern whether the BPPV had been caused by a head injury as a result of the fall.

In our article, we drew no conclusions regarding the specific causality because we did not have data regarding preceding symptomology and, furthermore, are aware of the often complex presentation in older adults with absence of classical symptoms.3

Similarly, we did not have the resources to do post-treatment surveillance. The aim of this study was not to determine whether BPPV was the cause of falls in this group but simply to establish the prevalence of BPPV in older adults admitted to hospital with falls.

Regardless of whether the diagnosis of BPPV was simply an incidental finding irrelevant to the cause of the fall, or indeed caused by the trauma of the admitting fall, it has been well established that treating BPPV reduces a person's risk of falls.2 As we have stated in our ‘key points’, a diagnosis of BPPV in a patient with known falls will hopefully reduce the risk of future falls following successful treatment.

We welcome the correspondent's opinion that more information is required within this field and we are currently drawing up plans to expand the scope of our team's research into BPPV.

Conflicts of interest

The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

  • © Royal College of Physicians 2016. All rights reserved.

References

  1. ↵
    1. Abbott J
    , Tomassen S, Lane L, Bishop K, Thomas N. Assessment for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo in medical patients admitted with falls in a district general hospital. Clin Med 2016;16:335–8.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  2. ↵
    1. Gananca FF
    , Gazzola JM, Gananca CF, et al. Elderly falls associated with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Braz J Otorhinolaryngol 2010;76:113–20.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  3. ↵
    1. Pollak L
    . Awareness of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo in central Isreal. BMC Neurol 2009;9:17.
    OpenUrlPubMed
Back to top
Previous articleNext article

Article Tools

Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Response
Joel Abbott
Clinical Medicine Dec 2016, 16 (6) 608; DOI: 10.7861/clinmedicine.16-6-608

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Response
Joel Abbott
Clinical Medicine Dec 2016, 16 (6) 608; DOI: 10.7861/clinmedicine.16-6-608
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Conflicts of interest
    • References
  • Info & Metrics

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • JAK-inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for refractory primary systemic vasculitides
  • Response
  • Functional disorders and chronic pain
Show more Letters to the editor

Similar Articles

Navigate this Journal

  • Journal Home
  • Current Issue
  • Ahead of Print
  • Archive

Related Links

  • ClinMed - Home
  • FHJ - Home
clinmedicine Footer Logo
  • Home
  • Journals
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
HighWire Press, Inc.

Follow Us:

  • Follow HighWire Origins on Twitter
  • Visit HighWire Origins on Facebook

Copyright © 2021 by the Royal College of Physicians