Upside down against the swash

On a children's Playground, the device would provide bright joy: The seat on the movable frame can be rotated along a circular rail in all directions. But as Gertrud Koch enters with her Walker in the room. The 92-Year-old sits on the overstuffed chair and placed the head in the holder provided. Like on a roller coaster, the old lady is strapped with belts around the abdomen, shoulders, feet, and chin. Neurologist Stefan Bögli asks you, during the investigation, keep the eyes open. "Are you ready?" he asks. And Hey Presto, he's tilting it diagonally to the rear. Suddenly the Elderly woman hangs upside down in a 30-degree angle in the frame. If you became dizzy, asks Bögli. The voice, the sounds from the device, sounds rather weak: "no, but something weird and a bit sick in the stomach for me."

Welcome to the mobile swivel chair Rotundum! Since the end of last year, the University hospital of Zurich (USZ) is with him. In the "Schwindelbus" bring it to the special chair in old age and nursing homes. So, the residents wish to clarify. In February, for example, the Bus visited the old centre stomp Bach in Zurich. With the brought the swivel chair, the in the elderly the most common Form of vertigo can be diagnosed and be treated.

Loose particles in the ear

this so-called benign positional vertigo, tiny Lime stones from falling into the semicircular canals of the inner ear for the balance responsible. Normally, these particles are attached to the hairs in a gel-like mass on the many Thousands associated with head movements in the organ of balance to the Swing and the position of the head via the sensory cells and nerves report to the brain. The stones swim around freely, they trigger in case of fast movements unusually strong currents in the fluid of the semicircular canals. If Affected, get up quickly or turn your head, you can feel a heavy dizziness that lasts up to a Minute. It can lead to Nausea or Falls. Why these crystals is known exactly. Frequently occurs positional vertigo, but after the shocks of the head.

During the investigation, the patients usually wear a pair of glasses with an infrared camera, which makes the eye movements on a screen. For quick, twitching movements of the eyes, in the technical language of Nystagmus called, are a sure sign of a benign positional vertigo. The disease was still little known and often overlooked, says Dominik Straumann, head of the interdisciplinary centre for vertigo and neurological visual impairment at the University hospital Zurich. "They can be helped often with simple measures. Their quality of life improves significantly."

"those Affected can often be done with simple measures helped."Dominik Straumann,
head of the center for dizziness and neurological visual impairment, University hospital of Zurich

By selectively Rotating the body on the special chair the crystals from the affected semicircular canal be maneuvered axes; then they dissolve after a few hours spontaneously. This method of treatment could be in a similar Form independently with Exercises in which the head of the edge of the bed hangs down. However, for many Elderly or people with neck problems, this method was an ordeal, or even no longer possible, Straumann.

Some hospitals have chairs, therefore, the appropriate rotation. To bring the easy treatment option for people in retirement and nursing homes, has developed the USZ-Team, in collaboration with the engineers, a slight variant that can be transported without much effort.

For some months the "Schwindelbus is" now mainly in the Canton of Zurich, but also in the adjacent regions such as Aargau or the Canton of Zug. The dizziness clarification on the Bus for the old-age institutions, as well as for its residents free of charge. Funded the pilot project of a Foundation, the University Hospital Zurich Foundation.

Many reasons

in addition to the benign positional vertigo, there are various other forms and causes of the unpleasant wobble. Often blood pressure fluctuations are responsible for, such as the sudden getting Up from a chair or bed. In people with low blood pressure – actually, a affordable property – this can result in already at a young age to dizziness or even Fainting. With increasing age, when the blood pressure rises usually able to compensate for the heart, the fluctuations are less well. "That's not always harmless," warns Hate Kerkeni, Deputy Director of the dizziness clinic at the Inselspital in Bern. Occasionally, the heart would hide diseases such as rhythm disorders behind the Symptom.

Severe vertigo can also cause an inflammation of the Gleichgewichtsnervs or Meniere's disease, caused by increased pressure of the fluid in the inner ear. The latter can lead to attacks that last for up to 24 hours. "Dizziness is a complex Symptom," stresses expert Kerkeni. Sometimes the Background was also an anxious self-observation, which go hand in hand with an increased perception of fluctuating feelings.

late of the migraine episode?

Gertrud Koch, our Elderly woman on the mobile swivel chair, could not be confirmed the suspicion of a benign positional vertigo finally: When Tilting in the swivel chair she had no distinct feelings of dizziness, and the Doctors also observed none of the typical eye twitching (Nystagmus). She was often unsteady on the legs and her head is "cloudy" feeling was probably more of a late result of their many years of migraine disease, mutmasst neurologist Stefan Bögli.

Typically, migraine attacks with headache at the age of 50 to 60 years, spontaneously. Often occasional dizziness symptoms remain but; one then speaks of a "dizziness migraine". These complaints can be reduced with medication. Bögli recommends his patient, therefore, the Problem as soon as possible with your family doctor.

the swivel chair could not be helped to the Elderly woman. But at least she knows now what she has. Satisfied, she makes it back with the Walker on the way to your room.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 31.03.2019, 19:53 PM