Vestibular Rehabilitation

Dizziness and balance problems affect approx.  50% of all adults at sometime. The causes of dizziness are varied and all patients with those problems should have a medical assessment prior to Vestibular Rehabilitation. Common causes of dizziness are as follows:

• Cardio-vascular Arrhythmia’s, TIA, Arterio-sclerosis
• Neurological Dysfunction (Stroke, MS)
• Visual Deficit
• Psychogenic
• Dizziness
• Vestibular System Disorders

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo or BPPV is the most common cause of vertigo or dizziness.  Patients with BPPV complain of vertigo when bending over, looking up, rolling over in bed, and lying down.

It is a biomechanical problem in which one of the Semi Circular Canals (SCC) of the inner ear is inappropriately excited due to floating crystals (debris) within the fluid in that  SCC, or debris which adheres to the hair cells within that SCC.

Treatment consists of:

• Assessment which canal is involved
• Specific manipulation to move the debris out of the SCC and / or dislodge from the hair cells
• Instructions / Vestibular Adaptation Exercises / Balance Exercises as Appropriate