Guidelines for vestibular rehabilitation of unilateral and bilateral vestibular hypofunction
Autori:
Siniša Maslovara, Silva Butković-Soldo, Petar Drviš, Davor Sunara, Alen Sekelj, Nikolina Ljubičić Marković, Tihana Mendeš, Anamarija Šestak, Marija Imširović, Karmela Maslovara, Olivera Čejić, Ingrid Sarić, Laura Dražić, Tihomir Živić
Sažetak
Summary
Vestibular rehabilitation is a planned, individually-tailored exercise system that speeds up the process of central compensation of the damaged vestibular system. In medicine, it was introduced by Cawthorne and Cooksey in the middle of the last century. For years, there have been controversies about the importance and effectiveness of this type of treatment. Numerous well-designed, prospective clinical studies that have been conducted in recent decades have demonstrated the significance of vestibular exercises, as well as their beneficial effect on the speed and degree of patients’ recovery so that an increased impulse has been experienced just in recent decades. Vestibular hypofunction, be it an acute or chronic disorder, a one-sided, or bilateral phenomenon, is rather a common predicament for a practicing physician, especially the one dealing with the dizziness problems. Although the vestibular rehabilitation is an elective treatment for most of these disorders, it is still quite neglected and seriously underestimated. These Guidelines aim to assist the physicians and physiotherapists in equalizing the access to the patients with unilateral and bilateral vestibular hypofunction, avoiding unnecessary variations in vestibular rehabilitation application. They are neither a tutorial nor the only and accurate source, but they provide for an evidence-based framework for decision-making, not replacing the importance of clinical judgment. Thus, the purpose of these Guidelines is to determine who should be treated and when, how, and how long the treatment should be administered. They take into account the evidence of metadata while analyzing the available medical literature, as well as our long-standing experience in dealing with such patients.