[The effectiveness of vestibular rehabilitation in Ménière's disease patients with chronic imbalance].

Objective

To observe the effectiveness of vestibular rehabilitation in Ménière's disease patients with chronic imbalance.

Methods

Forty-five Ménière's disease patients with chronic imbalance treated in vertigo specialist clinic of Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University from December 2020 to December 2021 were enrolled. Patients were divided randomly into two groups, 23 patients in experimental group and 22 patients in control group. Both groups received routine outpatient treatment, and the experimental group received an additional vestibular rehabilitation for 8 weeks. All patients were evaluated with dizziness handicap inventory （DHI） at baseline and 8-week follow-up, and the incidence of fall was calculated. The occurrence of adverse events during the study was also recorded.

Results

There was no significant difference in baseline data between the two groups （P>0.05）. During the study, 1 patient were lost to follow-up and 2 patients dropped out. A total of 42 patients completed the study. Intentionality analysis was performed on lost follow-up patients. After 8 weeks of the treatment, there were significant statistically differences in difference values of DHI and DHI-F scores（d₁=-30.22±3.78, d₂=-13.09±4.85, t=-2.799, P<0.05; d₁=-12.43±1.46, d₂=-4.55±2.17, t=-3.043, P<0.05）, while no significant difference was showed in the difference values of DHI-P and DHI-E scores（P>0.05）. There was no significant difference in incidence of fall between two groups（P>0.05）, but the incidence of experimental group decreased significantly compared with that before treatment（4.35% vs 34.78%, χ²=4.973, P<0.05）. No serious adverse event was reported in the two groups.

Conclusion

Vestibular rehabilitation can improve the balance function and reduce risk of fall in Ménière's disease patients with chronic imbalance. Therefore, it is worthy of clinical application.