As people age, they may experience disorders that affect balance. Did you know that over 50% of seniors over the age of 65 fall each year? Elderly falls can have a serious impact on a person’s life and affect their daily activities and hinder their independence. Not all balance problems are caused by getting older however; there may be problems with the inner ear, brain or heart, certain medications, infections or poor blood circulation. Now there is a product available that can screen your patient’s for falls.
No longer do you have to test your patients for balance problems, dizziness problems, or vertigo by having to prep the patient, place electrodes, or calibrate. Balance Dynamics is the first video based and computerized ENG system brought to the market. This unique product is sets a new standard for performance in doing ENG testing for balance problems, dizziness problems, and vertigo. The exceptional and accurate product is called ’VNG’ or VideoNystagmoGraphy.
VideoNystagmoGraphy (VNG) is a test of your balance system. An extensive balance evaluation is required at times to determine the cause of dizziness or vertigo. The object of a balance evaluation with VNG is usually to be certain that there is no serious disease, and to try to pinpoint the exact site of the balance disorders, dizziness problems, or vertigo. This lays the ground work for effective medical or surgical treatment.
The VNG test is the recording of nystagmus or eye jerks by a camera. There are neural connections that stretch from the balance mechanism in the inner ear to the muscles of the eye. A disorder of the balance mechanism results in small eye jerks that can only be detected by a sophisticated computer. A camera attached to a pair of goggles records these eye jerks during a series of balance tasks. The balance mechanism is monitored during balance tasks that consist of looking back and forth between designated points, following moving lights, lying in different positions, shaking your head, and lying down and sitting up quickly. The final portion of the test requires putting cool and warm air in the ear canal for roughly 60 seconds in order to determine if the balance mechanism of each ear can increase and decrease normally in response to stimulation.