It’s all in a day’s work for our Ear Nose Throat (ENT) patients who require vestibular physiotherapy for dizziness and vertigo.

In 17 April 2007, CGH started offering the rehabilitative treatment concurrently with the ENT clinics on the first and third Tuesday of every month. The result is faster and fuss-free services as patients get to see the doctor and physiotherapist on the same day.

Vestibular physiotherapy is very specialised and can only be administered by physiotherapists who have undergone special training in this area. The rehabilitation provided is an individualised programme to treat patients with dizziness, vertigo and other balance disorders.

According to Ms Soh Xin Yi, Senior Physiotherapist, there are many causes to these disorders. These are strokes, head trauma, Meniere’s disease, Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV), and vestibular hypofunction where the inner ear is not working properly, normally due to ageing.

Of them all, BPPV is the most common. It is an inner ear problem that causes a spinning or whirling sensation (vertigo) when the person moves his head. The sensation can be mild or bad enough to cause nausea and vomiting.

BPPV is suspected to be caused by particles that broke off from the inner ear and became dislodged into the ear’s canal, interfering with balance and cause vertigo. Medicines, disease, ageing or a head injury are some of the reasons why particles break off.

With vestibular physiotherapy augmenting medical treatment, the recovery rate of BPPV patients can be as high as 85 per cent. Some of the rehab treatment provided are balance training (doing exercises that increase one’s balance), eye reflex training (such as watching objects move), and habituation exercises (doing the activity that produces one’s dizziness so that the brain does not perceive this activity as being abnormal).

“This new initiative is part of CGH’s continuous efforts to provide integrated and quality patient care and services to our patients,” said Ms Soh who works closely with Dr Eng Soh Ping, ENT Consultant on this service augmentation.