Balance Rehabilitation in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury: A Scoping Review.

Background and

Objectives

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of long-term disability among adults, with consequences for balance, postural stability, and quality of life. Addressing balance disorders in TBI patients requires a tailored and continuous care approach; the existing literature underlines a general framework for physiotherapy treatments, but no clear profile of technique, dosage and timing of intervention emerges. The present scoping review, therefore, aimed at mapping physiotherapy approaches to balance in TBI population, highlighting their potential effects and role through care pathways. Materials and

Methods

A scoping review was conducted, according to PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews, with the aim of mapping physical therapy approaches to treat balance disorders in adult patients with TBI. A specific search string for each database was formulated through a PCC (Population, Concept, Context) framework. The search, limited to articles in English and published between 2015 and 2025, was conducted across five databases (PubMed, PEDro, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science), including experimental studies, observational designs, and `case reports.

Results

From the initial selection of 1052 records, six studies were included: five randomized controlled trials and a case report, published between 2016 and 2022. Results presented high heterogeneity of physiotherapy programs and outcome variations; interventions identified included virtual reality, video game therapy, adapted physical exercise, ballistic training, rapid-resistance elliptical training, and rhythmic auditory stimulation. These studies reported variable improvements in balance and mobility, not even with significant inter-group differences.

Conclusions

Several techniques showed preliminary evidence in pre/post improvements of balance for TBI patients, including strength exercise, aerobic training and virtual-mediated approaches such as video game therapy and virtual reality. Rhythmic auditory stimulation has unclear effects. Future studies are needed to define the impact of each balance recovery strategy according to the baseline characteristics of the patient.