Unilateral Peripheral Vestibular Dysfunction: Reeducation and Spatial Orientation.
Condition: Inner Ear Disease; Equilibrium; Disorder, Labyrinth; Spatial Navigation
MeSH terms: Ear Diseases; Labyrinth Diseases; Labyrinthitis
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Motor control includes postural control and voluntary movement. For an optimal motor control
      it is necessary that brain integrates vestibular, visual and somatosensorial inputs properly,
      in a nonlinear way. Vestibular system, as an afferent organ, encodes head position in
      relation to gravity and changes in its linear and angular acceleration. As vestibular central
      system, it plays an essential role in motor control and in orientation and spatial memory as
      well.

      When a peripheral vestibular lesion occurs, elaboration, interpretation and processing of
      inputs are deficient and therefore motor control is altered to a greater or lesser degree. As
      process progress in time, there is a natural neuroplasticity that facilitates recovery or
      compensate vestibular function, although sometimes this process is incomplete and requires
      vestibular reeducation This study aims to assess changes in balance control, orientation and
      handicap perception in one case group with symptomatic unilateral peripheral vestibular
      dysfunction, before and after a rehabilitation programme (RV). To compare values obtained at
      the beginning and at the end of RV to those achieved by control group. Finally, this research
      aims to analyse evolution of spatial orientation quality in symptomatic and non symptomatic
      participants.
    

Detailed description: 
      Intervention group: 30 people with a unilateral peripheral vestibular disorder (UPVD).
      Process lasting more than three months and symptomatic. Aged 18-66 years old.

      Control group: 30 participants without UPVD, healthy for the purpose of study. No
      intervention group: 30 people with a unilateral peripheral vestibular disorder without
      symptomatology. Both groups also aged 18-66.

      Balance quality was registered with static and dynamic posturography. For spatial orientation
      is was registered Visual vertical and visual orientation perception. Vestibular disability
      was also assessed. Variables were registered at the beginning and at the end of a vestibular
      reeducation in UPVD participants. Vestibular reeducation consisted of 10 sessions of
      vestibular rehabilitation using dynamic posturography and visual reeducation. Duration of
      each session: 40 minutes. Twice a week.

      The aim is to compare data before and after intervention with those obtained in compensated
      patients and control group.
    

Intervention name(s): Vestibular reeducation
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): Balance quality was registered with static and dynamic posturography. For spatial orientation is was registered Visual vertical and visual orientation perception. Vestibular disability was also assessed. Variables were registered at the beginning and at the end of a vestibular rehabilitation in UPVD participants. Vestibular rehabilitation consisted of 10 sessions of vestibular rehabilitation using dynamic posturography and visual reeducation. Duration of each session: 40 minutes. Twice a week.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention model description: Longitudinal case-control study. Accidental sampling. Single - centre study (Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Zaragoza. Spain)
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: Spatial cognition, vestibular system, motor control