Article

Our objective was to evaluate whether the severity of vestibular loss and old-age
(>65) affect a patient's ability to benefit from training using head-position
based, tongue-placed electrotactile feedback. Seventy-one chronic dizzy patients,
who had reached a plateau with their conventional rehabilitation, followed six
1-h training sessions during 4 consecutive days (once on days 1 and 4, twice on
days 2 and 3). They presented bilateral vestibular areflexia (BVA), bilateral
vestibular losses (BVL), unilateral vestibular areflexia or unilateral vestibular
losses and were divided into two age-subgroups (65). Posturographic
assessments were performed without the device, 4h before and after the training.
Patients were tested with eyes opened and eyes closed (EC) on static and dynamic
(passively tilting) platforms. The studied posturographic scores improved
significantly, especially under test conditions restricting either visual or
somatosensory input. This 4-h retention effect was greater in older compared to
younger patients and was proportional to the degree of vestibular loss, patients
with increased vestibular losses showing greater improvements. In bilateral
patients, who constantly fell under dynamic-EC condition at the baseline, the
therapy effect was expressed by disappearance of falls in BVL and significant
prolongation in time-to-fall in BVA subgroups. Globally, our data showed that
short training with head-position based, tongue-placed electrotactile biofeedback
improves balance in chronic vestibulopathic patients some 16.74% beyond that
achieved with standard balance physiotherapy. Further studies with longer use of
this biofeedback are needed to investigate whether this approach could have
long-lasting retention effect on balance and quality of life.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS