Benign paroxysmal vertigo, and Bárány's caloric reactions

Abstract

The Nobel Prize winner Robert Bárány described benign positional vertigo and related it to the otoliths in 1921. Dix and Hallpike further elucidated this clinically distinctive, common disorder in 1952. The displacement of otoliths from the utricle or saccule into one of the semicircular canals later proved to be the underlying mechanism, described by Schuknecht and utilised therapeutically by Semont and Epley. Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG.