Citation

Sessoms PH, Gottshall KR, Sturdy J, Viirre E. Mil. Med. 2015; 180(3 Suppl): 135-142.

Affiliation

University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States)

DOI

10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00386

PMID

25747644

Abstract

A large percentage of persons with traumatic brain injury incur some type of vestibular dysfunction requiring vestibular physical therapy. These injuries may affect the natural ability to stabilize the head while walking. A simple method of utilizing motion capture equipment to measure head movement while walking was used to assess improvements in head stabilization of persons undergoing computerized vestibular physical therapy and virtual reality training for treatment of their vestibular problems. Movement data from the head and sacrum during gait were obtained over several visits and then analyzed to determine improved oscillatory head movement relative to the sacrum. The data suggest that, over time with treatment, head stabilization improves and moves toward a pattern similar to that of a healthy control population. This simple analysis of measuring head stability could be transferred to smaller, portable systems that are easily utilized to measure head stability during gait for use in gait assessment and physical therapy training.

Language: en