Influence of Rehabilitation Therapy and Pharmacotherapy on the BPPV

Although it is one of the most common causes of vertigo, simply diagnosed by the performance of the Dix-Hallpike test, the benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) frequently remains unrecognized even nowadays. This prospective clinical study involved all patients suffering from the vertigo symptoms who visited the ENT department of the General Hospital in Vukovar, Croatia, during a period between February 2008 and February 2009. Subsequent to the establishment of the BPPV diagnosis by the performance of the Dix-Hallpike test, 96 patients with the Dizziness Handicap Inventory testing being 40 points were isolated and involved into this study. They were randomly divided in two therapeutic groups: 48 patients in Group I were treated pharmacotherapeutically with betahistine chloride, and 48 patients in Group II were subject to a rehabilitational treatment. The patients in both groups have manifested an indubitable and significant recovery, a remission of symptoms, and an improvement in the general health status, as well as in the quality of life; however, there was an obviously faster and more complete patient recovery in Group II.

Autorentext

Sini a Maslovara, MD, Asst. Prof., is an audiologist and otorhinolaryngologist at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek. He is President of the Croatian Society for Vestibular Rehabilitation, and his main interests are diagnosis and treatment of dizziness.