Treating vertigo with vestibular rehabilitation: results in 155 patients

Balance is fundamental to our daily activities and the vestibular system, together with vision and proprioceptive functions, are the main structures involved in this process. Dizziness is the main clinical manifestation of malfunction of these systems. The mechanisms of vestibular compensation are one of the most studied aspects since they play an important role in the patient's everyday activities. In this retrospective description of a series of cases the authors present their results in 155 patients that underwent a program of vestibular rehabilitation (VR). The program, first described by Cawthorne and Coosey, is based on mechanisms of potentiation of the cervico-ocular reflex and substitution of the lost vestibular cues for visual and somatosensory cues. The results were satisfactory (remission or partial cure) in 75.5% of the patients, with an average treatment time of up to 2 months and 5 or fewer sessions performed in most of the cases. The results were somewhat inferior in those cases in which a central vestibular lesion or more than one etiologic factor was present. The results of a subgroup of elderly patients (age > 65 years) were similar to those of the total number of studied subjects. Vestibular rehabilitation, associated to the specific etiological treatment, appears to be a very useful tool in the management of patients suffering from dizziness of all ages, although different clinical responses to the therapy may vary according to the presence of a central or a peripheral vestibular lesion or multiple etiological factors.