Recovery of regular daily physical activities prevents residual dizziness after canalith repositioning procedures

Objective: Residual dizziness is a disorder of unknown pathophysiology, which may occurafter repositioning procedures for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. This study evaluates therelationship between regular daily physical activity and the development of residual dizziness aftertreatment for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Study Design: Prospective observational cohortstudy. Setting: Academic university hospital. Methods: Seventy-one patients admitted with benignparoxysmal positional vertigo involving the posterior semicircular canal were managed with Epley’sprocedure. Three days after successful treatment, the patients underwent a telephone interview toinvestigate vertigo relapse. If the patients no longer complained of vertigo, they were asked aboutsymptoms consistent with residual dizziness. Subsequently, they were asked about the recovery ofphysical activities they regularly performed prior to the onset of vertigo. Results: Sixty-nine patients(age: 57.79 ± 15.05) were enrolled: five (7.24%) reported vertigo relapse whereas twenty-one ofsixty-four non-relapsed patients (32.81%) reported residual dizziness. A significant difference inthe incidence of residual dizziness was observed considering the patients’ age (p = 0.0003). Of thenon-relapsed patients, 46 (71.88%) recovered their regular dynamic daily activities after treatmentand 9 (19.57%) reported residual dizziness, while 12 of the 18 patients (66.67%) who did not resumedaily activity reported residual symptoms (p = 0.0003). A logistic regression analysis showed asignificant association between daily activity resumption and lack of residual dizziness (OR: 14.01,95% CI limits 3.14–62.47; p = 0.001). Conclusions: Regardless of age, the resumption of regular dailyphysical activities is associated with a lack of residual dizziness