study of balance disorders in old patients

ABSTRACT

This work studied 50 cases and 20 control patients complaining of dizziness and balance problems. The study also included 20 normal volunteer subjects to detect the 5th percentile of the used score. Each patient was diagnosed depending on history, examination and audiological and balance investigations. Semiquantitative clinical measures of equilibrium and subjective improvement were studied in patients and control groups before and after therapy. It was found that there was statistically highly significant improvement of mean score in clinical static and dynamic equilibrium after completing the vestibular rehabilitation regimen. There was a highly significant difference between the patient and the control groups in static assessment, but a insignificant difference in dynamic assessment. It was found that the static equilibrium score is more accurate than the dynamic one. There was a negative correlation between age and the degree of improvement in both static and dynamic assessment in patients and control groups. It was found that the vestibular subgroup of patients showed a statistically significant better improvement than the non-vestibular and the unknown subgroups. The benefit of vestibular rehabilitation therapy [VRT] was also found to be limited in patients with multiple medical problems. 62% of the patients' group and 15% of the control group achieved major improvement after VRT