NCT03831594

Combining Physical Therapy With Vestibular Stimulation to Improve Postural Stability in Pusher's Syndrome

• Status: Withdrawn
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 0 (actual)
• Sponsor: Imperial College London · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The study is evaluating the effect of combining Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) with standard Physiotherapy treatment in patients admitted to a neurological rehabilitation unit with Pusher syndrome (PS). Patients will be randomised to receive standard Physiotherapy treatment or standard treatment with GVS. Perceived verticality data will also be collected and analysed on age-matched controls. This data will be used to compare these results with the patients with PS. The investigators hypothesis that GVS and standard Physiotherapy treatment will lead to a greater improvement in functional ability and awareness of perceived verticality compared to standard Physiotherapy alone.

Detailed description

Pusher syndrome (PS) can be described as disordered balance and orientation which causes patients to perceive they are in an upright position when in fact they are positioned towards their affected side. These patients use their unaffected limbs to 'push' themselves away from their unaffected side in an attempt to correct their perceived postural alignment. PS is a common disorder and can affect 16% of stroke patients. Patients with PS have shown to take longer to improve in rehabilitation than non-PS patients and tend to stay in hospital for longer. Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) involves passing a small electrical current behind the ear to stimulate the vestibular system to in-turn cause the head and body to move.

Conditions

• Pusher Syndrome

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation	Electrical current (under 1.5mA) applied to the mastoid processes to stimulate the balance organs in the inner ear
OTHER	Standard Physiotherapy	45 minutes of standard physiotherapy treating impairments and functional problems

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-11-01
• Primary completion: 2021-01-18
• Completion: 2021-01-20
• First posted: 2019-02-06
• Last updated: 2023-11-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom