Impact of the Vestibular System on the Formation and Progression to Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Review of Literature.

The physiopathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis remains unknown. However, a multifactorial pathogenesis is being assumed. Besides biomechanical, biochemical, and genetic factors, some studies have focused on congenital or acquired abnormalities in the vestibular organ with consecutive development of scoliosis.

Patient quality of life after vestibular schwannoma removal: possibilities and limits to measuring different domains of patients' wellbeing.

Purpose: Since the 1980s, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been recognized in the assessment of medical treatment. To determine the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of vestibular schwannoma (VS) patients, a specific questionnaire that has been validated in different languages is essential.

Methods: The Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) and PANQOL questionnaires in German were evaluated in patients after removal of a VS via the translabyrinthine approach.

Quality of Life After Translabyrinthine Vestibular Schwannoma Resection-Reliability of the German PANQOL Questionnaire.

Objective: To quantify the postoperative quality of life (QOL) of patients after translabyrinthine surgery for vestibular schwannoma (VS) using the German version of the Penn acoustic neuroma quality-of-life questionnaire (PANQOL) in a university hospital.

Methods: The PANQOL questionnaire was administered to 72 patients who were treated in our department with translabyrinthine surgery for VS between January 2007 and January 2017. Descriptive evaluations of results were performed in addition to analyses of the reliability and convergent validity of the results and a subgroup analysis.

Multistep translation and cultural adaptation of the Penn acoustic neuroma quality-of-life scale for German-speaking patients.

Background: Monitoring the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS) has garnered increasing interest. In German-speaking countries, there is no disease-specific questionnaire available similar to the "Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality-of-life Scale" (PANQOL).

Method: We translated the PANQOL for German-speaking patients based on a multistep protocol that included not only a forward-backward translation but also linguistic and sociocultural adaptations.

Associations Between Bipedal Stance Stability and Locomotor Stability Following a Trip in Unilateral Vestibulopathy.

Posturography is used to assess balance in clinical settings, but its relationship to gait stability is unclear. We assessed if dynamic gait stability is associated with standing balance in 12 patients with unilateral vestibulopathy. Participants were unexpectedly tripped during treadmill walking and the change in the margin of stability (MoS) and base of support (BoS) relative to nonperturbed walking was calculated for the perturbed and first recovery steps.

Visual and proprioceptive contributions to postural control of upright stance in unilateral vestibulopathy.

Preserving upright stance requires central integration of the sensory systems and appropriate motor output from the neuromuscular system to keep the centre of pressure (COP) within the base of support. Unilateral peripheral vestibular disorder (UPVD) causes diminished stance stability. The aim of this study was to determine the limits of stability and to examine the contribution of multiple sensory systems to upright standing in UPVD patients and healthy subjects.

Deficient recovery response and adaptive feedback potential in dynamic gait stability in unilateral peripheral vestibular disorder patients.

Unilateral peripheral vestibular disorder (UPVD) causes deficient locomotor responses to novel environments due to a lack of accurate vestibular sensory information, increasing fall risk. This study aimed to examine recovery response (stability recovery actions) and adaptive feedback potential in dynamic stability of UPVD-patients and healthy control subjects during perturbed walking. 17 UPVD-patients (>6 months since onset) and 17 matched healthy control participants walked on a treadmill and were subjected to eight unexpected perturbations during the swing phase of the right leg.

Effects of noise in primary schools on health facets in German teachers.

Empirical research indicates that children and teachers are exposed to mean sound levels between 65 and 87 dB (A) and peak sound levels of 100 dB (A) in schools, which may lead to hearing loss and mental health problems. A questionnaire containing 13 targeted questions about noise and sensitivity to noise was distributed to 43 teachers aged between 25 and 64 years at five different primary schools in the Cologne municipal area. The small number of interrogated teachers leads to a wide range of deviation and little significance in the results.

Sound levels and their effects on children in a German primary school.

Considerable sound levels are produced in primary schools by voices of children and resonance effects. As a consequence, hearing loss and mental impairment may occur. In a Cologne primary school, sound levels were measured in three different classrooms, each with 24 children, 8-10 years old, and one teacher.

[Sound levels in nursery schools].

Introduction: Children and teenagers often suffer from hearing loss because of exposure to sound levels above 100 dB generated by toys, portable music players and stereo equipment in discotheques. Even in nursery schools and schools, considerable noise levels are produced by children's voices.

Methods: Sound levels were measured in a nursery school in Cologne in four different rooms, each with 22 children aged between 3 and 6 years and two teachers.

Influence of cervical spine stabilization via Stiff Neck on the postural system in healthy patients: compensation or decompensation of the postural system?

Functional and structural disorders of the cervical spine are often regarded as the cause of non-specific vertigo. Pathogenetically, disorders of proprioceptive connections between neck muscles and vestibular cores as well as the proprioceptors in the cervical facette joints are presumed. According to a study by Hülse and Hölzl (HNO 48:295-301, 1), after manual therapeutic intervention in patients with functional disorders of the cervical spine 50% of the probands stated a significant reduction of their vertigo.

[Degeneration and osteoporosis of the spine. Is there a modified procedure?].

Reduced bone quality due to osteoporosis poses a fundamental problem in spine surgery instrumentation. The consequences observed most often are insufficient implant anchoring and adjacent fractures. In cases of manifest osteoporosis, several modern anchoring possibilities are at our disposal that, to differing degrees, increase the stability of the instrumentation.

[Anterior spondylosis of the cervical spine causing dyspnea and sleep disturbance].

Background: Cervical osteochondrosis is a rare differential diagnosis leading to dysphagia, inspiratory stridor and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).

Patients And Methods: We report six cases of patients with episodes of neck pain (n=6), pain reflected to the arm (n=1), sleep apnea (n=5), inspiratory stridor (n=3) and/or unclear dysphagia (n=6), who presented between 2000 and 2003 at the Römerwallklinik Mainz and the university hospitals of Mainz and Cologne. None of these patients had symptoms of spinal or radicular compression.

[Characterization of sleep disturbance in patients with tinnitus].

Background: Approximately 60 % of patients with tinnitus experience disturbances of the normal sleep pattern.

Methods: Polysomnography was performed on 26 patients with tinnitus and sleep disturbances.

Results: In 17 of 26 patients polysomnography revealed a pathological sleep analysis: 10 patients were diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, 4 with insomnia and an increased index of arousals as well as a reduction of deep sleep- and REM-phases.

Retro-pharyngeal obstruction in association with osteophytes of the cervical spine.

We describe five patients with cervical spondylosis and large anterior osteophytes causing pharyngeal compression. All had dysphagia, two had obstructive sleep apnoea and another two had dyspnoea and stridor on inspiration. One, with perforation of the pharynx, required emergency tracheostomy.

[Attention diversion in tinnitus therapy. Comparison of the effects of different treatment methods].

Background: Diversion or distraction of auditory attention is a core principle of tinnitus retraining therapy as introduced by P. Jastreboff and J. Hazell.