EFFICACY OF VESTIBULAR REHABILITATION FOR PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC VERTIGO IN OLD AGE

• Published in: JIBI INKOKA TEMBO Vol. 63; no. 2; pp. 59 - 65
• Main Authors: Koiduka, Izumi, Miyamoto, Yasuhiro, Arai, Kotaro, Ohara, Akihiro, Shinohe, Tatsuya, Mikami, Koshi, Yaguchi, Yuichiro, Suzuki, Kaori, Nisimoto, Hiroshi, Inagaki, Taro, Sasano, Yasuyuki, Mochizuki, Fumihiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Society of Oto-rhino-laryngology Tokyo 15.04.2020; 耳鼻咽喉科展望会
• Subjects: Brandt-Daroff 法; Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI); the Brandt-Daroff method; the X1 paradigm; vestibular compensation; X1 パラダイム; 前庭代償
• ISSN: 0386-9687; 1883-6429
• DOI: 10.11453/orltokyo.63.2_59

Japan is one of the world's leading countries with a super-aging society among the countries in the world with the fastest rate of super-aging of society, with an aging rate of 28.1%, as estimated in 2018. In the elderly population, dizziness and balance disorders are well-known risk factors for falls. In the present study, we examined the effects of vestibular rehabilitation in patients aged 65 years old or older who had dizziness and an impaired sense of balance, which, as mentioned above, are major risk factors for falls.　The subjects of this prospective interventional study comprised 21 patients with dizziness aged 65 years old or older (7 men and 14 women). We performed a comparative assessment of the patients using the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) before the start of vestibular rehabilitation intervention and 2 months after the start of the intervention. As vestibular rehabilitation, the subjects were asked to practice the X1 paradigm proposed by Tusa et al. and the Brandt-Daroff method at home for 2 months.　The results revealed significant improvement of the average score and scores in the three categories of physical, emotional and functional well-being of the DHI at 2 months after the start of the intervention as compared to before the intervention. Among the vestibular rehabilitation methods, the X1 paradigm is mainly aimed at correcting the left-right difference in the semicircular canal vestibulo-ocular reflex, while the Brandt-Daroff method is aimed at promoting sensory substitution by vision and somatic sensation. In the patients with age-related balance disorder in this study, it appears that the subjective symptoms improved because of sensory substitution, mainly owing to the improvement of vision and somatic sensation by vestibular rehabilitation.