Chulalongkorn vestibular balance exercise for rehabilitation in persons with various types of vestibular disorders.

OBJECTIVE

To study the efficiency of Chulalongkorn vestibular balance exercise for rehabilitation in persons with various types of vestibular disorders.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Fifty-eight patients with various types of vestibular disorder were identified by a retrospective chart review. Thirty of the 58 patients met the inclusion criteria of having dizziness and unsteadiness post vestibular diseases with complete record of neuro-otologic examination; vestibular tests and had been followed-up for at least 3 month. These patients were treated with Chulalongkorn vestibular balance exercise and were evaluated for dizziness symptoms and balance bedside test at the beginning of treatment, one month and three months after the exercise.

RESULTS

The average age of the patients was 50.34 ± 14.04 years. The average of duration of exercise program was 5.6 months. There were 6 cases of vestibular neuronitis; 5 cases of post acoustic neuroma removal; 4 cases of acute cochleovestibular loss; 3 cases of motion sickness; 2 cases of cerebellar atrophy; 3 cases of multisensory dizziness; 4 cases of post meningitis with deafness; and 3 cases of ototoxicity. After the exercise, improvement of dizziness symptoms could be found in all groups of the diseases at one month and three months. The objective of balance bedside test was improved in most cases except motion sickness, multisensory dizziness and cerebellar atrophy. The overall percentage of improvement of dizziness was statistically significant at one month and three months (p = 0.0373 and p < 0.001). However the overall balance bedside test was statistically improved at three months after the exercise (p = 0.034).

CONCLUSION

Chulalongkorn vestibular balance exercise gave significantly effective results in the treatment of dizziness and unsteadiness from various types of vestibular disorder. This study demonstrated improvement of dizziness symptom post-exercise at one month and three months with statistical significance. The balance bedside test was also statistically significant improved at three months post-exercise.