Vestibular Issues And Balance Disorders CEU Courses

There is emerging evidence that noise exposure and otologic disease can result in simultaneous dysfunction of both the cochlea and vestibular sensory organs. This webinar reviews the anatomical and physiological consequences of noise on both the cochlea and vestibular organs.

This course presents common mental health conditions that are frequently seen in patients with vestibular disorders. Learn about treatment strategies that can be easily applied clinically when anxiety or other mental health conditions interfere with treatment delivery/outcomes.

Vestibular dysfunction and significant fall risks are more prevalent in the diabetic population. Learn about the pathophysiology and epidemiology of diabetes to improve your understanding of the impact this disease can have on balance function.

Menière Disease (MD) and Vestibular Migraine (VM) are the 2 most common causes of episodic vertigo. Diagnosis of both disorders is based on clinical history and on audiometric exam showing, in Menière Disease, sensorineural low-frequency hearing loss. At onset, differential diagnosis is often a puzzling dilemma, considering that around 50% of MD subjects also experience migraine, and VM patients, in many cases, report cochlear symptoms during attacks. Recent works propose that according to phenotypes and comorbidities, MD could be differentiated into subgroups, each presenting peculiarities for onset and evolution, MD with migraine among them. Other authors proposed a similar work for VM patients. In this webinar, Dr. R. Teggi examines clinical and etiological conditions commonly shared.

Besides typical symptoms and signs (including pulsatile tinnitus, hyperacusis, pressure/sound-induced torsional nystagmus, conductive hearing loss and lowered thresholds of air-conducted VEMPs) an analysis of the relevant literature reveals a certain clinical polymorphism induced by superior canal dehiscence (SCD). In addition to asymptomatic persons or subjects with SCD presenting exclusively with cochlear symptoms (only partly explained by the so-called “near-dehiscence syndrome”), SCD cases mainly presenting with atypical/refractory/recurrent positional vertigo and/or Meniere-like vertigo spells have been recently described. Moreover, if surgical occlusion of the superior canal (SC) results in symptoms control inducing a selective SC hypofunction, clinicians my sometimes accidentally detect a reduced SC VOR gain in asymptomatic patients with wide-sized dehiscence. These findings led authors to propose the occurrence either of a natural SC plugging (complete or incomplete) by middle fossa dura prolapsing into the canal lumen or a dispersion of mechanical energy through the dehiscence. Typical and atypical scenarios is presented. A subsample of patients from the personal series with a complete otoneurologic assessment (audiometry, VOG eye recording, air/bone-conducted cervical/ocular VEMPs, video head impulse test) is selected to explain these emerging theories on possible pathomechanisms.

This presentation will cover higher level vestibular functions that normally are not addressed in training. These areas included the effect of age and pathology on motion perception.

Over the past five years, we have seen a growing interest in studying vestibular disorders in children. The most commonly noteworthy are vestibular disorders in congenital sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and cochlear implants. Identifying and diagnosing vestibular and balance dysfunction in children is essential for their overall well-being. However, the diagnosis process is very demanding.This talk will provide an overview of vestibular and balance assessments in children with SNHL.

Experienced providers from Michigan Medicine will detail the patient journey from identification through intervention for vestibular schwannomas. This series will provide an overview of diagnostic auditory and vestibular evaluations relevant to vestibular schwannomas, medical and surgical management of these tumors from the perspective of a neurotologist, as well as intraoperative monitoring considerations.

This course will provide an overview of the techniques used to monitor hearing and facial nerve during vestibular schwannoma surgeries. Particular attention will be paid to monitoring and outcomes for hearing preservation surgeries.

This course reviews the common symptoms and findings associated with vestibular schwannoma, as well as workup and differential diagnosis for lesions of the cerebellopontine angle. A discussion of the natural history of vestibular schwannoma and general current paradigms for treatment are included.