Assessment and Treatment of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo

Dizziness accounts for 5.6 million clinic visits a year in the US. Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is the most frequent single cause of isolated positional vertigo, accounting for nearly one-half of patients with peripheral vestibular dysfunction. Approximately 17-41% of patients seen in dizziness clinics and 25% of patients sent for vestibular testing have BPPV. Most often, BPPV can be easily diagnosed and treated with 100% resolution of symptoms in clinics within 1-2 treatment sessions. However, there has been an increasing number of cases with atypical presentation of BPPV needing clinical expertise in recognition, assessment, and treatment. As a practicing healthcare professional, no matter what your expertise is, adding knowledge and treatment methods to your toolbox for this disorder is imperative for supplementation of a complete therapeutic skill set.

Practicing healthcare professionals will leave this workshop with a clear understanding of the normal functioning of the inner ear's vestibular system, pathophysiology of BPPV and its variants, and application ofa simple clinical algorithm to help make differential diagnosis of BPPV. A review of current clinical practice guidelines will be included to strengthen the differential diagnosis processand clinical application of treatment of both typical and atypical BPPV. A case study in the end will include participant's participation to recognize signs and symptoms of typical and atypical BPPV, make a diagnosis, and then prepare a treatment plan. In addition, participants will learn torecognize when a patient is not presenting with BPPV and when to refer to a neurologist or another medical specialist. Multiple videos will be used to demonstrate clinical assessment and treatment maneuvers of BPPV and itsvariants.

Target Audience: Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants

Highlights

• Immediately improve your client's functional limitations by choosing appropriate maneuvers to treat their positional vertigo
• Improve your knowledge in understanding the physiology of BPPV and accurately diagnose the canal involved by accurately using differential diagnostic algorithm
• Practical assessment and simple breakdown of positive and negative results of each test used
• Effective treatment strategies to successfullytreat BPPV
• Classify when BPPV has atypical presentation and be able to successfully assess and treat it