Vestibular Rehabilitation and Balance Re-education
Vestibular Rehabilitation, or Balance Retraining Therapy, is a scientifically based and clinically valid therapeutic modality for the treatment of persistent dizziness and postural instability due to incomplete compensation after peripheral vestibular or central nervous system injury. Balance Retraining Therapy is significantly beneficial for fall prevention in elderly patients who may suffer from multiple sensory, motor impairments and/or have sensory disruption with moving visual information.
Dizziness, vertigo and disequilibrium may have common causes but have different symptoms experienced by each individual patient. These symptoms may vary from dizziness or blurred vision with head movements, neck tightness, stiffness and/or pain to frequent falls, vertigo/spinning and/or imbalance/need to hold onto objects when walking.
These are all symptoms that can be a result of several different conditionssuch as:
- Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo
- Vestibular neuritis
- Labyrinthitis
- Meniere’s disease.
- Autoimmune ear disease
- Cervicogenic dizziness
- Ototoxicity
- Dizziness caused by orthostatic hypotension, certain medication, vision disturbances
When the vestibular system is compromised, dizziness and vertigo may occur due to inaccurate information about equilibriumto the brain. The goal of vestibular rehabilitation is to retrain a patient’s brain to utilize all three balance systems by desensitizing the positions that provoke vestibular symptoms.
During vestibular rehabilitation, a complete assessment of posture, balance, compensatory strategies, and gait areconducted along with hand-eye coordination and visual tracking. An individualized and tailored treatment plan is developed for each patient and consists of specific body, head and eye exercises to be performed. Some patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo also benefit from a specialized procedure called a canalith repositioning procedure, which is performed by the physical therapist. The canalith repositioning procedure is a simple repositioning procedure consisting of several simple head maneuvers that can move the otoconia (tiny particles that may have broken loose in one part of the inner ear and fallen into the inner ear canals) to a part of your ear where they won't cause dizziness.