Efficacy of Vestibular Rehabilitation in Vestibular Neuritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of vestibular rehabilitation in vestibular neuritis.

Design: A randomized controlled trial was collected from MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, PEDro, LILACS, and Google Scholar before May 2023.

Results: This study included 12 randomized controlled trials involving 536 patients with vestibular neuritis. Vestibular rehabilitation was comparable with steroids in dizziness handicap inventory score at the first, sixth, and 12th months (pooled mean differences: -4.00, -0.21, and -0.31, respectively); caloric lateralization at the third, sixth, and 12th months (pooled mean difference: 1.10, 4.76, and -0.31, respectively); and abnormal numbers of vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials at the first, sixth, and 12th months. Patients receiving a combination of rehabilitation and steroid exhibited significant improvement in dizziness handicap inventory score at the first, third, and 12th months (mean difference: -14.86, pooled mean difference: -4.63, mean difference: -9.50, respectively); caloric lateralization at the first and third months (pooled mean difference: -10.28, pooled mean difference: -8.12, respectively); and numbers of vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials at the first and third months (risk ratios: 0.66 and 0.60, respectively) than did those receiving steroids alone.

Conclusions: Vestibular rehabilitation is recommended for patients with vestibular neuritis. A combination of vestibular rehabilitation and steroids is more effective than steroids alone in the treatment of patients with vestibular neuritis.