Abstract
Objective:
To investigate the long-term effects of adding virtual reality–based home exercises to vestibular rehabilitation in people with unilateral vestibular hypofunction.
Design:
Follow-up otoneurological examination in two randomized groups following a previous one-month trial.
Setting:
Tertiary rehabilitation center.
Subjects:
A total of 47 patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction, one group (n = 24) undergoing conventional vestibular rehabilitation and the other one (n = 23) implementing, in addition, head-mounted gaming home exercises, 20 minutes per day for one month.
Interventions:
One year after completing rehabilitation, patients underwent testing with static posturography, video head impulse test, self-report questionnaires, and a performance measure.
Main measures:
Vestibulo-ocular reflex gain, posturographic parameters such as length, surface, and fast Fourier transform power spectra, self-report, and gait performance measure scores.
Results:
Vestibulo-ocular reflex gain was significantly better with respect to pretreatment in both groups. The mixed-method group showed significantly higher gain scores: mean (standard deviation (SD)) at 12 months was 0.71 (0.04), versus 0.64 (0.03) for the vestibular rehabilitation–only group (P < 0.001). Accordingly, some classical posturography scores such as surface with eyes open and length with eyes closed and low-frequency power spectra were significantly different between groups, with the virtual reality group showing improvement (P < 0.001). Self-report measures were significantly better in both groups compared to pretreatment, with significant improvement in the mixed-method group as compared to conventional rehabilitation alone: Dizziness Handicap Inventory mean total score was 24.34 (2.8) versus 35.73 (5.88) with a P-value <0.001.
Conclusion:
Results suggest that head-mounted gaming home exercises are a viable, effective, additional measure to improve long-term vestibular rehabilitation outcomes.
Keywords
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