Caracterização clínica de idosos com disfunção vestibular crônica

Abstract

Di zziness is common among the elderly. Aim: To characterize social, demographic, clinical, functional and otoneurological data in elderly patients with chronic vestibular disorder. Method: A sequential study of 120 patients with chronic vestibular disorder. Simple descriptive analyses were undertaken. Results: Most of the patients were female (68.3%) with a mean age of 73.40±5.77 years. The average number of illnesses associated with the vestibular disorder was 3.83±1.84; the patients were taking on average 3.86±2.27 different medications. The most prevalent diagnosis on the vestibular exam was unilateral vestibular loss (29.8%) and the most prevalent etiology was metabolic vestibulopathy (40.0%) followed by benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (36.7%). Fifty-two patients (43.3%) had experienced dizziness for 5 years or more. Sixty-four patients (53.3%) had at least one fall in the last year and thirty-five (29.2%) had recurrent falls. Conclusions: Most of the sample included females with associated diseases, and using many different drugs. The most prevalent vestibular diseases were metabolic and vascular labyrinth conditions. Dizziness is a chronic symptom in elderly patients. The association of two vestibular diseases is common. Falls are prevalent in chronic dizzy elderly patients.

Correlação entre equilíbrio corporal e capacidade funcional de idosos com disfunções vestibulares crônicas

“…Moreover, mortality rates grows with age, thus reducing the number of elderly diagnosed with vestibular dysfunction as age advances 13 . In this study, most participants were women (80%), which is in agreement with reports found in the literature [14][15][16] . Dizziness is more frequently found among women, at the rate of 2:1.…”

Factors relating to depressive symptoms among elderly people with chronic vestibular dysfunction

“…with regard to falls, 64 of the elderly individuals (53.3%) had fallen at least once during the preceding year, and 35 (29.2%) reported recurrent falls. The full sociodemographic, clinical-functional and otoneurological characterization of the sample was described in an earlier paper 6 .…”

“…The psychosomatic consequences of dizziness caused by vestibular disorders may include anguish, anxiety and panic attacks, fear of going out alone, interference in daily activities, feelings of being outside of reality, depersonalization and depressed mood [3][4][5][6] .…”

Fatores associados ao equilíbrio funcional em idosos com disfunção vestibular crônica

“…Complete otoneurological, clinical-functional and socio-demographic information of this sample is described in another publication 21 . We noticed a week negative statistically significant correlation between BBS score and patient age (ρ= -0.354; p<0.001).…”