Outcomes in vestibular ablative procedures.

OBJECTIVE: To assess dizziness handicap and postural recovery in 17 patients undergoing a vestibular ablative procedure.

STUDY DESIGN: Outcomes were compared between nine patients who underwent selective vestibular neurectomy and eight patients who underwent a transmastoid labyrinthectomy.

SETTING: Patients underwent ablative procedures at a tertiary care facility.

METHODS: Patients were tested with posturography (sensory organization test [SOT]) and the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) before and 4 to 5 weeks after their procedure.

RESULTS: The mean change scores for each of the DHI subscales and the total DHI score showed significant improvement for the labyrinthectomy group. For the neurectomy group, only the emotional DHI subscale change score showed significant improvement. No difference was noted between preprocedure and postprocedure SOT scores for either group. The results indicated that the largest proportion of significant correlations existed between DHI and the somatosensory and vestibular subtests of platform posturography. In regression analyses, a model with age (p = 0.04) and vestibular score (p = 0.001) fitted the data well and explained 52.9% of the variance. Persons who were less than 69 years old were three times more likely to report persistent episodes of dizziness after the ablative procedure, and those who had neurectomies were 2.3 times more likely to report episodes of dizziness than those who underwent transmastoid labyrinthectomy.

CONCLUSION: Dizziness handicap after an ablative procedure is influenced by the type of procedure (labyrinthectomy versus neurectomy), age, and preoperative vestibular score on the SOT. Preoperative vestibular SOT score is highly associated with the emotional, physical, and functional domains of perceived handicap and quality of life after the surgery.