An International Conference on Vestibular Rehabilitation

Being a world traveler has afforded Dr Susan Whitney exposure to excellent researchers and clinicians who conduct basic science and clinical research relevant to behavior and function of the vestibular system. Eight years ago, she planted the seed within the Vestibular Special Interest group (SIG) of the Academy of Neurological Physical Therapy (ANPT) to host a world-class conference on vestibular rehabilitation and include international speakers. She shared the idea with Drs Anne Galgon (Chair of the Vestibular SIG, whose efforts in bringing the idea to the ANPT Board of Directors were critical for the meeting's approval), Janet Helminski, Becky Olson-Kellogg, and Michael Schubert. All were supportive of the idea. A primary goal of the conference was to introduce the US vestibular physical therapy (VPT) community to outstanding international vestibular research that was relevant to clinical practice. This inspiration gave rise to the Inaugural International Conference on Vestibular Rehabilitation (ICVR), which was held on August 17 to 20, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois. The ICVR was a tremendous success, included were 28 speakers, 12 of whom were international. Total attendance included 553 attendees from 43 states of the United States and 4 Canadian provinces, with an overall representation of 20 countries. A secondary goal was to publish 8 manuscripts that highlighted content from the conference, which were directly relevant to VPT. This supplement is representative of content from the ICVR conference and contains the following concepts: Klatt et al1 provide a theoretical framework and review that establishes a correlation between vestibular function and cognition; Todd et al2 discuss a novel method of vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gain adaptation that incorporates the subject's “real-time” VOR gain as it is being driven to increase; Helminski3 provides 2 interesting cases of a positional vertigo variant affecting the posterior semicircular canal; Eggers4 discusses how to examine and characterize the trajectory and other attributes of nystagmus in order to arrive at a correct diagnosis; Gold and Schubert5 discuss the pathophysiology of a peripheral vestibular skew deviation and offer examination techniques useful to differentiate it from mimics such as a fourth cranial nerve palsy; Whitney and Sparto6 update us on oculomotor abnormalities after sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury; Jeong and Kim7 discuss the critical relationship between proper vitamin D metabolism and occurrence of positional vertigo; and finally, Kattah8 provides an update on clinical tests invaluable for distinguishing dangerous central from more benign peripheral causes of vestibular disorders. We hope that this special conferences supplement is of interest to our neurologic physical therapy community, especially for those people who were not able to attend the meeting. The conference and this special supplement to the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy would never have happened without the generosity and support of the ANPT. Both Presidents Deborah Larsen and Patty Sheets, plus their respective Boards of Directors, deserve our thanks for their vision in supporting the conference and this special conference supplement.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.