Abstract
Objective
To assess the effectiveness of the anchors in the balance rehabilitation of participants
with chronic peripheral vestibulopathy who failed to respond positively to conventional
rehabilitation for dynamic balance and gait.
Design
Assessor-blind, randomized controlled trial.
Setting
Department of Otoneurology and Laboratory of Assessment and Rehabilitation of Equilibrium.
Participants
Women with chronic dizziness of peripheral vestibular origin (N=42), who continued
to show otoneurologic symptoms for more than 6 months after starting classic vestibular
rehabilitation, with no clinical improvement observed.
Interventions
Participants were randomly assigned to receive a clinical intervention with the anchor
system, a clinical intervention without the anchor system, or no intervention or anchor
system. The intervention was based on multi-sensory exercises for 6 weeks, twice a
week, totaling 12 sessions, in groups of up to 4 participants, with an average time
of 40 minutes per session.
Main Outcome Measures
The primary outcome was functional balance as assessed by the short version of the
Balance Evaluation Systems Test. The secondary outcomes were gait parameters of step
width in meters, step length in meters, and gait speed in meters per second. The measures
were assessed preintervention and postintervention, and after a 3-month follow-up
period.
Results
The proposed intervention was beneficial for dizziness, balance, and gait for both
groups studied. At the 3-month follow-up, only the group that used anchors retained
the benefits related to the physical aspects of dizziness, balance, and gait.
Conclusions
The present study found that the proposed intervention protocol, with or without the
use of anchors, was beneficial for improving the dizziness, balance, and gait. However,
retention of the benefits achieved through the exercise protocol was observed only
for those using the anchor system, which promotes the use of haptic information. The
use of anchors was effective, in short protocols (12wk), with maintenance of results
after 3 months.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
CNS (central nervous system), DHI (Dizziness Handicap Inventory), G1 (intervention group with anchors), G2 (intervention group without anchors), G3 (control group with vestibulopathy), Mini-BESTest (short version of the Balance Evaluation Systems Test), MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment), VR (vestibular rehabilitation)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: August 26, 2019
Footnotes
Clinical Trial Registration No.: RBR-2rzt5c.
Supported by the Research, Teaching and Assistance Support Foundation of School of Medicine, University of São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
