Fisioterapia vestibular na prevenção de quedas de idosos: uma revisão sistemática

Abstract

Objective: Identify the effects of Vestibular Physiotherapy on the occurrence of falls in the elderly. Method: This is a systematic review using the combined descriptors in English, Portuguese and Spanish, “physical therapy modalities” or “rehabilitation” and “vestibular diseases” and “accidental falls” and “aged”, in the electronic databases United States National Library of Medicine (PubMed), Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Sciences of the Health (LILACS), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciElo) and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro). The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the PEDro score. Result: The sample consisted of five studies. Participants with a mean age of 77 years. The mean score of the methodological quality of the articles was 5.4 points, ranging from four to eight. In two studies, only Vestibular Physiotherapy exercises were used, one using the Cawthorne and Cooksey protocol, comparing the Conventional use of Multimodal and the Other, following a circuit training program with exercises for the eyes, head and trunk, twice a week, with each session lasting 50 minutes, for eight and nine weeks, and there was no significant difference in the number of falls. Three studies that included computerized dynamic posturography as one of the Vestibular Physiotherapy interventions, once a day, five times a week, for two weeks for approximately 15 minutes, significantly reduced the number of falls. Conclusion: Vestibular Physiotherapy reduced the number of falls among the elderly, and significantly when computerized dynamic posturography was used.