Ten Minutes Vestibular Examinations but Persistent Rehabilitative Exercises

Abstract

Vertigo is a common illness that patients seek consultation in ENT clinics. Patients often have a hallucination of environmental rotation while patients with dizziness often have a sense of lightheadedness. This presentation will introduce some useful but succinct clinical examinations that medical practitioners can do in about 10 minutes to make initial diagnosis whether the vertigo has a peripheral or central cause before referring the patient for more sophisticated vertigo and vestibular assessments. Some latest technologies in assessing vestibular functions are also introduced. Vestibular or dizzy rehabilitative exercise should follow if permanent vestibular paresis is found. With unilateral vestibular lesions, asymmetry of tonic vestibulospinal activity may lead to postural and gait imbalance. With symmetrical vestibular loss, the imbalance will be more pronounced and persistent. This presentation introduces some vestibular or dizziness exercises that can be practised by the patients at home. These exercises try to provoke imbalance and dizziness but at the same time try to improve the brain to compensate for any abnormalities in the vestibular system and to retrain the brain to adapt and tolerate the information from the deficit vestibular apparatus. The exercises also train the visual and somatosensory systems to compensate and assist in balancing and reduce the sense of dizziness.