VESTIBULAR AND PROPRIOCEPTIVE REHABILITATION STRATEGY IN ACOUSTIC NEURINOMA

Abstract

Rehabilitation therapy can be used to treat balance disorders via exercises organized into anatomo-pathological protocols. In general, there is an indication for rehabilitation whenever compensation of a patient’s vestibular system fails to adequately resolve spontaneously. Although the therapeutical indications have expanded over time, it is especially useful to treat balance disorders in neurological patients and those with acute damage to the vestibular system. Specifically, it favors and accelerates spontaneous central compensation in a variety of neurological disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, cerebellar pathologies or in brain tumors like Vestibular Schwannoma (or Acoustic Neurinoma). The latter is a benign intracranial tumor that affects the acoustic nerve (or cranial nerve VIII), which is concerned with hearing, balance and head position. It represents about 6% of all intracranial tumors, with an incidence of approximately 1 per 100,000 person-years. Affected patients present with a range of symptoms including discomfort, reduced motor capacity and afflictions that lead to functional limitations in the activities of daily life and personal care, especially in performing tasks requiring some degree of postural balance. The aim is to treat them through a series of exercises to be repeated both with the aid of a specialized supervisor and unassisted at home; the treatment is based on proprioceptive and vestibular exercises that progressively improve their quality of life.