Vestibular Rehab Flashcards
Dizziness is a vague term, and can be roughly separated into four
basic categories:
- True Vertigo
- Imbalance
- Lightheadedness, giddiness, queasiness, sea-sickness or nausea (a person’s reaction to vertigo or imbalance)
- Faintness (or weakness)
“True vertigo”:
An illusion of movement: either you feel that you’re moving, or that the room is moving.
“Imbalance”:
A tendency to fall, especially in darkness.
“Lightheadedness, giddiness, queasiness, sea-sickness or nausea”:
These are a person’s reactions to vertigo or imbalance. They are sometimes referred to as vegetative symptoms.
4 basic causes of dizzines:
- Otologic (from ear)
- Neurologic (from brain)
- general medical
- psychiatric/undiagnosed (“these dizzi patients are nuts!”
Most common type of otologic dizzines:
Bening Positional Vertigo (49%)
(“the most common is the easiest to treat)
Most common type of neurological dizzines:
Stroke and TIA (35%)
followed by vertebrobasilar migraine (woman who had migraine on the red carpet)
most common type of medical dizziness:
Orthostatic Hypotension (23-43%)
Orthostatic hypotension test:
- Blood pressure screening
- two different positions
- 20 point drop in systolic agnostic for orthostatic hypotension
- PTs don’t treat this, referral to Dr.
“hyperventilation syndrome”, “post-traumatic vertigo,” and “nonspecific” dizziness. About 25% of dizziness or vertigo falls into this category. There is a high correlation with
____________ and dizziness
anxiety disorders
Pt turning head in bed, get few seconds of acute spinning, then it goes away, (+) nystagmus:
Bening Positional Vertigo
patient with permanent dizzines and Gait ataxia, oscillopsia. (–) nystgamus:
Bilateral Vestibular Disorder
Acute onset, motion sensitivity, vomiting that last 48-72 hours, (+) nystagmus:
Vestibular Neuritis (ear infection)
1-24 hours (acute) Fullness of ear, hearing loss, tinnitus, vomiting. (+) nystagmus. Pt wakes up in the morning, an have to crawl to the bed (can’t go to work)
Ménière’s Disease
What are the key points to examine (to know) in vestibular patients?
Is it coming from the brain or from ear?
Is it one side or both?
Most important questions in subjective examination of the vestibular pt:
- Duration
- Frequency
- Precipitating factors
- Medications (drowsiness…)
Oscillopsia
decreased gaze stability
issues with balance in the dark happens to people who rely on vision for balance
older patients
this is why the majority of balance exercise should be done with eyes closed
as I walk towards a subject, I am not able to stabilize gaze and it becomes blurry (oscillopsia)
Bilateral Vestibular Hypofunction
classic vestibular bilateral symptom?
oscillopsia
classic unilateral vestibular symptom
motion sensitivity
vertigo with strain ex. a pt blow their nose or strain in the toilet, they get vertigo
fistula
problems with coordination (ex ataxia)
central involvement patients