Migraine has been associated with subclinical vestibular and auditory dysfunction in adults, but comprehensive assessment across multiple audiovestibular domains in children with migraine who lack overt vestibular symptoms remains limited....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Consider routine audiovestibular screening in pediatric migraine patients even when vestibular symptoms are absent, as subclinical abnormalities may be detectable; however, broader practice-change guidelines await replication in larger studies.
Identifying hidden hearing and balance dysfunction in childhood migraine could prompt earlier monitoring and may inform understanding of how migraine affects the inner ear over time.
- 01Prospective case-control design assessed multiple audiovestibular domains in migrainous children without vestibular symptoms.
- 02Subclinical (symptom-free) abnormalities were detected in hearing and balance tests despite no reported dizziness.
- 03Findings suggest migraine may affect the inner-ear system before overt vestibular symptoms emerge.
- 04Published in Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol (2026); single-center prospective design limits generalizability.
- 05Results support closer audiovestibular monitoring in pediatric migraine populations.
Children with migraine and no vestibular symptoms show measurable subclinical audiovestibular abnormalities.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42950531
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ijporl.2026.113070.
- Journal
- International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 3
- Population
- Children with migraine who lack vestibular symptoms, compared to controls
- Intervention
- Multimodal audiovestibular test battery
- Comparator
- Healthy controls (case-control)
Primary outcomes
Prevalence of subclinical audiovestibular abnormalities across multiple test domains