Vestibular Neuritis Following COVID-19 Vaccination: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Objective To determine if the COVID-19 vaccine can cause vestibular neuritis (VN). Design Retrospective study. Setting Vertigo outpatient clinic of the Department of Otolaryngology JR Tokyo General Hospital. Participants: 378 patients who presented at the Vertigo clinic between July 2018 and March 2022 Results 23 out of 378 cases were diagnosed with vestibular neuritis. There was a significant seasonal bias of the onset of VN in 2021-3Q compared to other seasons. All 7 patients diagnosed with VN whose onset was 2021-3Q and 2021-4Q had received the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine within the previous 3 months and one patient diagnosed with VN whose onset was 2022-1Q had a history of COVID-19 infection six months earlier. Conclusions VN should be recognized as one of the side-effects of the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination.