Objectives: This study aimed to explore the effects of different duration and daily frequency of vestibular rehabilitation (VR) in patients with residual symptoms after benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) successful repositioning.
Method: Patients with successful BPPV repositioning (n = 118) were divided into 3 groups according to VR duration and frequency: group A (n = 30; 15 minutes, 3 times/day), group B (n = 30; 30 minutes, 3 times/day), group C (n = 28; 15 minutes, 6 times/day), and control group D (n = 30; no VR). All patients completed the dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) and vestibular rehabilitation benefit questionnaire (VRBQ) at baseline and after 2 and 4 weeks.
Results: The emotional scores and the proportion of severe dizziness disability in the DHI scores were significant differences between VR groups A to C and control group D after 2 and 4 weeks (all P < .05). There were significant differences in total DHI and VRBQ scores among the VR groups A to C after 2 and 4 weeks (all P < .05). Interestingly, emotion scores were not significantly different in group A (P = .385), group B (P = .569), and group C (P = .340) between 2 and 4 weeks. Meanwhile at 2 weeks, the difference in motion-provoked dizziness score between group A and B was statistically significant (P = .02).
Conclusions: A total VR duration over 4 weeks can reduce dizziness and improve VR benefits in routine therapy in patients with residual dizziness after successful BPPV repositioning. Emotional improvement can be observed after 2 weeks. VR may help to relieve motion-provoked dizziness earlier if patients are willing to consider increasing the duration to more than 15 minutes.
Keywords: benign positional paroxysmal vertigo (BPPV); duration and frequency; residual symptoms; vestibular rehabilitation.