Rapid recovery of a patient with chronic balance disorders treated with combination of home-based therapy and regular physiotherapist follow-up: A case report

Background: Chronic balance is one of the common problems that will affect people quality of life. The longer the problem will lead to the more severe quality of life and daily activities impairment.
Case Report: A case of a 44-year old female patient, who suffered from a 1-year chronic balance disorder associated with the psychological symptom. Dizziness becomes worsening 3 months ago with severe restriction of daily activities such as cooking, house cleaning and using a stair. Experienced having the chronic balanced disorder, imbalance, floating and spinning sensation, right ear tinnitus. Her main difficulty was when doing daily activities with the movement of head and phobia of crowded and small place. Balance assessment was done before and after the intervention. Malay version Vertigo symptom scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory-Malay and Beck Depression Inventory- Malay were done before and after rehabilitation. The patient then underwent home based video module for balance rehabilitation that named as BAL EX combined with physiotherapist follow up. All clinical balance assessments were normal, but positive findings were found in Fukuda test and GAN SOP test. Malay version of vertigo symptom scale (MVVSS) analysis showed that her imbalance level was in a severe range.
Conclusions: In a case of chronic balance disorders patients, a combination of home-based and intensive physical vestibular rehabilitation can result in rapid recovery of balance symptoms. Further research needs to be done among different type and duration and chronic balance problem in order to have a better understanding of this finding.