Vestibular rehabilitation: rationale and indications.

Treatment options of the patient with dizziness include medication, rehabilitation with physical therapy, surgery, counseling, and reassurance. Here the authors discuss vestibular rehabilitation for patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), unilateral vestibular loss or hypofunction, and bilateral vestibular loss/hypofunction. They describe the different mechanisms for recovery with vestibular rehabilitation, the exercises that are used, and which ones are best.

Dizziness and vertigo: emergencies and management.

The cause of dizziness in patients seen in the emergency room can usually be determined by a focused evaluation that consists of identifying three key features in the history and five key elements of the clinical examination. This article discusses the most common causes of dizziness, how to use this approach, and management of these cases in the emergency room.

A Prototype Head-Motion Monitoring System for In-Home Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy.

This work reports the use of a head-motion monitoring system to record patient head movements while completing in-home exercises for vestibular rehabilitation therapy. Based upon a dual-axis gyroscope (yaw and pitch, ± 500-degrees/sec maximum), angular head rotations were measured and stored via an on-board memory card. The system enabled the clinician to document exercises at home.

Efficacy of gaze stability exercises in older adults with dizziness.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the addition of gaze stability exercises to balance rehabilitation would lead to greater improvements of symptoms and postural stability in older adults with normal vestibular function who reported dizziness.

Methods: Participants who were referred to outpatient physical therapy for dizziness were randomly assigned to the gaze stabilization (GS) group (n = 20) or control (CON) group (n = 19). Dizziness was defined as symptoms of unsteadiness, spinning, a sense of movement, or lightheadedness.

Nystagmus during attacks of vestibular migraine: an aid in diagnosis.

Introduction: An estimated one-fourth to one-third of patients with migraine will experience vertigo associated with their migraine attacks. Vestibular migraine frequently presents as a diagnostic challenge as objective neurological findings consistent with this entity have not been well described.

Objective: The aim of this study is to characterize eye movements of patients presenting with nystagmus during attacks of migrainous vertigo.