Effects of cranial osteopathic techniques in the symptoms of benign positional paroxistic vertical

Abstract

Background: The benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is the most common cause of dizziness among the population. The osteopathy is a practice of manual therapy which is guided by a holistic perspective of human being, the cranial osteopathy affirms that the respective bones of the cranium represent mobility. Objective: To investigate the effect of the cranial osteopathy techniques on the benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Methods: The current study included 20 female subjects, each one of them with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, distributed in two groups, an intervention group and a control group (placebo); in order to detect the BPPV, was applied the Dix-Hallpike test before and after the interventions. Three techniques of cranial osteopathy were used on the structures related to vestibule and to the temporal bones: mobilization of temporal bones, tensioning of cerebellar tentorium and mobilization of eyeball. All statistical analyzes were performed using the GraphPad Prism 6.0 software (GraphPad Software, CA).Results: Among the intervention group, 7 of 10 individuals were negative to the Dix-Hallpike test, whilst individuals of the control group remained positive to the test. In the statistical analysis verified that the intervention with osteopathic techniques had a significant effect in compared to the control group, with a value p=0.0261. Conclusion: The cranial osteopathy appears to be able of produce effects on the vestibular activity, whereas were able to reduce, in a significant means, the symptoms concerning to BPPV.