Walk-rotate-walk test identifies patients responding to Lempert's maneuver, with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo of the horizontal canal.

Two hundred and fifteen patients were diagnosed and treated for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo of the horizontal canal (BPPV-HC). All patients were tested with conventional positional nystagmus tests lying supine and rotating head for geotropic nystagmus, registered with Frenzels glasses, and in 109 cases with ENG. The walk-rotate-walk (WRW) test, developed by one of us (T.R.) and described in the text, was applied to all patients. The immediate good treatment results with Lempert's maneuver verify the correct diagnosis of BPPV-HC. The WRW test is a more sensitive test for BPPV-HC than earlier positional tests. The unhabituated acute phase of vestibular neuritis shows positive test results and must be eliminated with caloric tests. The WRW test identifies as a dynamic test patients with symptoms of even lesser magnitude, where the compensatory capacity of the equilibrium system suppresses the diagnostic findings with earlier positional horizontal canal tests.