Vestibular Rehabilitation Protocol in Unilateral Vestibular Schwannoma

Summary

Brief Summary

The purpose of this clinical trial is to evaluate whether different strategies of vestibular rehabilitation, performed before and after surgery, can improve recovery in adults diagnosed with unilateral vestibular schwannoma. The main questions the study aims to answer are:

Does preoperative vestibular telerehabilitation improve postoperative vestibular compensation compared with no intervention?

Does adding preoperative rotatory chair stimulation to telerehabilitation lead to greater improvements in balance, dizziness, or hospital length of stay?

The study includes three comparison groups:

No-intervention group: Participants do not receive pre- or postoperative rehabilitation, but complete all study assessments (vHIT, DHI, posturography, and hospital length of stay).

Telerehabilitation group: Participants complete a structured home-based vestibular telerehabilitation program (ReHub) for 3 weeks before surgery and again for 3 weeks after surgery.

Rotatory Chair + Telerehabilitation group: Participants receive the same telerehabilitation program as the telerehabilitation group, plus six supervised sessions of preoperative rotatory chair stimulation (two sessions per week for three weeks), following a progressive protocol in the ENT department using a CE-marked clinical rotatory chair.

Participants will:

Attend routine preoperative and postoperative assessments (vHIT, posturography, and DHI).

Complete home-based vestibular exercises through a digital telerehabilitation platform (Groups 2 and 3).

If assigned to the Rotatory Chair + Telerehabilitation group, attend six in-hospital sessions of controlled rotatory chair stimulation during the three weeks before surgery.

Undergo follow-up evaluations at 4 and 12 weeks after surgery.

This study aims to determine whether structured vestibular training conducted before and after surgery can enhance postoperative compensation and reduce symptom burden in patients undergoing vestibular schwannoma surgery.

Conditions

• Vestibular Schwannoma
• Vestibular Schwannomas

Interventions

OTHER

No Intervention: Observational Cohort

Participants undergo the standard surgical treatment for unilateral vestibular schwannoma and complete protocol assessments (vHIT, posturography, DHI, and hospital length of stay). They do not receive any preoperative or postoperative vestibular rehabilitation.

BEHAVIORAL

Structured home-based vestibular telerehabilitation program

Structured home-based vestibular rehabilitation program delivered through the ReHub digital platform for 3 weeks before surgery and 3 weeks after surgery, including gaze stabilization, balance, and habituation exercises with remote supervision.

DEVICE

CE-marked clinical rotatory chair

Six supervised sessions of controlled vestibular stimulation delivered over 3 weeks using a CE-marked clinical rotatory chair following a progressive protocol in rotational velocity and post-rotation fixation tasks.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

  collaborator OTHER

• Albert Torrents Torrero

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-09-01

Primary Completion

2027-03-31

Completion

2027-12-31

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations