[Vestibular neuronitis and its differential diagnosis (author's transl)].

The study gives a survey of the different terminologies, opinions regarding etiology, and differential diagnoses. In accordance with animal experiments, and our own experience with 71 patients, an activating therapy, including exercises, is recommended instead of bed-rest. Under special circumstances diagnosis may be difficult. For instance, a centrally reduced thermal reactivity of the healthy labyrinth may mimic a bilateral canal paresis. The vestibular type of Menière's disease, disseminated encephalomyelitis, herpes zoster oticus, or the complication of a chronic otitis media cannot always be differentiated from a unilateral vestibular paralysis.