Static Balance in Patients with Vestibular Impairments: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Aims. Vestibular system is indicated as one of the most important sensors responsible for static and dynamic postural control. In this study, we evaluated static balance in patients with unilateral vestibular impairments. Materials and Methods. We compared static balance control using Kistler force plate platform between 10 patients with unilateral vestibular impairments and 20 normal counterparts in the same sex ratio and age limits (50 ± 7). We evaluated excursion and velocity of center of pressure (COP) and path length in anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) planes with eyes open and with eyes closed. Results. There was no significant difference between COP excursions in ML and AP planes between both groups with eyes open and eyes closed (p value > 0.05). In contrast, the difference between velocity and path length of COP in the mentioned planes was significant between both groups with eyes open and eyes closed (p value < 0.05). Conclusions. The present study showed the static instability and balance of patients with vestibular impairments indicated by the abnormal characteristics of body balance.

Effect of noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation in community-dwelling elderly people: a randomised controlled trial

“…Studies have shown that patients with vestibular disorders have increased COP sway path lengths and mean velocities [ 21 ] and that nGVS can enhance the function of vestibular afferents [ 22 ]. These findings suggest that the improved function of vestibular afferents may have reduced COP sway observed in this study.…”

Balance performance when responding to visual stimuli in patients with Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)

“…The control of standing balance requires sensory inputs from the visual, somatosensory and vestibular systems and appropriate motor commands to the musculoskeletal system [2,4,35,44]. Vestibular disorders can disrupt sensory control of posture [36] as well as vestibular reflexes involving postural muscle responses [1], leading to balance problems and increased risk of falls [16,28,34,40].…”

“…During this period of time, patients might have altered their balance performance because of the vestibular disorders, which might increase the risk of falling [30]. There have been studies investigating balance performance in people with vestibular disorders [12,44]. There was evidence showing that balance performance of BPPV patients could be effectively ameliorated by a canalith repositioning manoeuver [5,11,13,31,32].…”

Balance asymmetry properties evaluation for people who are more and less likely to suffer from trauma

“…Balance is the ability to maintain a stable body position in various positions when moving under the influence of external forces [14]. The balance is of two types: static balance that is the ability to maintain the body position stationary, in the stable position [38], and dynamic balance that is the body posture maintenance in changing body positions while making movements and their combinations [24]. The static and dynamic balance is not very closely related to each other with a good static balance, a person may have difficulties when performing the tasks of dynamic balance [23].…”

“…There are a lot of factors, influencing the balance: vestibular apparatus, information from external and internal receptors, functionality of the central nervous system, age, changes of the body mass center, emotional state, muscle strength, muscle activation, coordination, flexibility, level of training, motor development, genetics, and gender [1,14,20,34,38,42]. Good balance depends on the accepted signals to the central nervous system (CNS) from visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems [37].…”