PURPOSE: to study the importance of positional nystagmus and positioning in vestibular assessment in the elderly. METHOD: retrospective descriptive study. It was analyzed evaluation charts of 70 patients aged over 60 years submitted of vestibular assessment. These charts were divided into two groups: group A composed of 35 charts with evaluation results of the positional nystagmus and vestibular diagnosis and group B with 35 charts with the results of the evaluation positional nystagmus and vestibular diagnosis. RESULTS: nystagmus position highlighted a significant number of peripheral vestibular dysfunction in Group A and nystagmus positioning a large number of positional vertigo in Group B, in which, also, was founded a prevalence of normal results. No significant differences it was found between the two groups for the variables, gender and age. CONCLUSION: the nystagmus position test allowed identifying peripheral vestibular disorders and positioning nystagmus to identify positional vertigo, pointing that the introduction of the latter test was useful but not replace the nystagmus position evaluation.
Diagnosis; Elderly; Dizziness; Vertigo
