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DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1686423
Balance exercises and physical therapy management of vestibular dysfunction – our experience
Vestibular dysfunction is most often experienced as vertigo or dizziness depending on the peripheral or central origin of the imbalance. There are vestibular rehabilitation methods to cope with these symptoms in the long term using balance exercises and physical therapy.
Our goal is to present our own devised panels of exercises in graphic form that we use to help patients speed up their natural cerebral compensation and spatial awareness in order to relieve and delay symptoms of vestibular dysfunction after the initial acute attack or with mild complaints. Among them are Epley and Semont maneuvres, Brandt-Daroff exercises (most useful in BPPV), as well as several exercises to enhance eye movements, head and body posture. Our patients are referred to physical therapy in cases involving dizziness accompanied by cervical pain and stifnness.
Our experience shows that this panel might be an equally effective alternative to medical treatment (most often betahistine) in the long run achievement of vestibular compensation, decreasing existing and delaying new symptoms and cryses in patients with chronic imbalance problems and/or outpatients with mild vertigo complaints.
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Publication History
Publication Date:
23 April 2019 (online)
© 2019. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Stuttgart · New York