Effect of Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation on Recovery from Gaze Palsy

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) on recovery from gaze palsy. Twenty patients with gaze palsy, (14 males and 6 females) their age ranged from 20–63 years with mean age 47.9±12.5 years. Duration of gaze palsy ranged from 4–24 months with mean of 10.6±5.23. Twelve patients were post stroke and eight patients with definite multiple sclerosis. They received galvanic vestibular stimulation three times/ week for four weeks. They were assessed by using three point scale for gaze deviation, line bisection test and line crossing test. These measures were recorded before the vestibular stimulation (pre treatment) and after four weeks (post treatment). Results of this study showed that, there was significant decrease in the grades of gaze deviation, significant improvement in line bisection and line crossing. It was concluded that, galvanic vestibular stimulation is a beneficial central non invasive modality to improve recovery from gaze palsy. (Egypt J. Neurol. Psychiat. Neurosurg., 2005, 42(2): 359-364).