Does COVID-19 Affect the Vestibular System?

Taşkın, “In the COVID-19 disease, which has recently affected our daily life and caused great problems in the health system, patients generally presenting complaints are fever, headache, sore throat and shortness of breath. These are the most common complaints and additional symptoms may occur depending on the organs affected by the disease. One of them may be dizziness, and rarely, it may appear as hearing loss and loss of sensation. " said.
 
Regarding the effects of the disease on the vestibular system, “Many organs can be involved in COVID-19 disease. While symptoms that affect the nervous system, such as loss of smell or symptoms due to damage to the vessels, it is thought that the vestibular system may also be affected, it has not been proven yet, studies on this continue. " said. He continued his speech as follows: "When coronavirus disease is thought to be a disease affecting the nervous system, it is not possible for the vestibular system to be unaffected, so patients with COVID-19 disease may present with dizziness."
 
"When the virus affects the central nervous system, we can see dizziness in these patients in the acute period." Taşkın added that there are no proven studies yet for the vestibular symptoms of patients in the long term, and in practice, these symptoms are temporary if a peripheral vestibular disease develops, and that it can take days, sometimes months, depending on the type of the disease.
 
The stress caused by the pandemic process can trigger dizziness. He stated that the incidence of Meniere's disease, which is a trigger of stress, occurs with attacks and causes dizziness, may increase with increasing stress in pandemic.
 
Ümit Taşkın “As a result, COVID-19 can affect all organs, especially vascular structures and a disease affecting the nervous system. As well as affecting the central nervous system, it can also affect the vestibular system causing vestibular symptoms. Although we do not have a study to show evidence yet, we can say that COVID-19 vision is also affected by the vestibular.” said.