Effects of Different Durations and Frequencies of Vestibular Rehabilitation in Patients With Residual Symptoms After Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo Repositioning

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.