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. Several mea...

Patients with vestibular hypofunction often experience dizziness and unsteadiness while moving their heads. Appropriate sensors can effectively detect a patient's dynamic visual acuity and associated body balance control. Forty-one vestibular-deficit patients and 10 normal individuals were invited to participate in this study. Questionnaires, clinical assessment scales and objective measures we...

UNLABELLED Individuals with vestibular dysfunction may experience visual vertigo (VV), in which symptoms are provoked or exacerbated by excessive or disorientating visual stimuli (e.g. supermarkets). VV can significantly improve when customized vestibular rehabilitation exercises are combined with exposure to optokinetic stimuli. Virtual reality (VR), which immerses patients in realistic, visua...

INTRODUCTION Some patients with severe impairment of body balance do not obtain adequate improvement from vestibular rehabilitation (VR). OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of Vertiguard™ biofeedback equipment as a sensory substitution (SS) of the vestibular system in patients who did not obtain sufficient improvement from VR. METHODS This was a randomized prospective clinical study. T...

The vestibular system is important for the development of normal movement reactions, motion tolerance, and motor control for postural alignment, balance, and vision. A vestibular system that is damaged by disease or injury in childhood can have a major impact on a child's development. In addition, the emergence of vestibular lesions may also lead to cognitive deficits, including attention defic...

Objective: To investigate whether vestibular rehabilitation for patients with whiplash-associated disorder and dizziness had any effect on balance measures and self-perceived handicap. Design: Randomized, controlled trial. Subjects: Twenty-nine patients, 20 women and 9 men, age range 22 76 years. Methods: The patients were randomized to an intervention group or a control group. The intervention...

OBJECTIVE To describe how vestibular rehabilitation influences pain and range of motion among patients with whiplash-associated disorder and dizziness, and to describe whether pain or range of motion correlated with balance performance or self-perceived dizziness handicap. SUBJECTS A total of 29 patients, 20 women and 9 men, age range 22-76 years. METHODS Patients with whiplash-associated d...

Saccadic eye movements offer several insights into the functional status of many areas of the central nervous system. As suchtheir observation is an important component of any neurological assessment. Unfortunately, these types of eye movementsare very fast and therefore cannot be evaluated in detail without high speed instrumentation. Direct infrared (IR) technologyallows to easily quantify st...

The scope of this paper was to analyze the effect of a structured protocol of vestibular rehabilitation in the symptomatology of dizziness and the quality of life among the elderly. Nine elderly individuals were attended, namely four males and five females. The Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) was used to assess quality of life and the dizziness quantification scale for the symptomatology of ...

Our aim in this study was to assess postural control adaptation quantitatively in unsteady elderly patients at risk of falls in open spaces and given balance training with a virtual-reality system reproducing environmental stimulation. Using a balance rehabilitation unit based on a virtual-reality system that changes sensory information (visual, vestibular, and somatosensory), we treated 26 eld...