Can Dizziness Handicap Inventory and Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scores Assess Vestibular Loss After Vestibular Schwannoma Excision?

Abstract

Evaluate and compare the Dizziness Handicap Inventory with Activities-specific Balance Confidence scores shortly after vestibular schwannoma excision. Retrospective database review. Tertiary care center. Adults undergoing vestibular schwannoma excision between January 2015 and December 2019. Diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative. Postoperative change in Dizziness Handicap Inventory scores and Activities-specific Balance Confidence scores 2 to 3 weeks after surgical intervention in relation to preoperative vestibular testing. A total of 49 patients met inclusion criteria. The average change in the Dizziness Handicap Inventory was 6 (p = 0.07, 95% CI 0-13). This was weakly correlated to preoperative caloric testing values (r = -0.31, p = 0.03), but not cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMP) values (r = -0.17, p = 0.23). The average change in Activities-specific Balance Confidence was -10% (p = 0.007, 95% CI -3 to -17%). This change was moderately correlated with preoperative caloric values (r = 0.42, p = 0.006), but it was not correlated with cVEMP (r = 0.07, p = 0.66). In vestibular schwannoma patients, factors other than preoperative vestibular function likely affect postoperative Dizziness Handicap Inventory and Activities-specific Balance Confidence scores. The change in Activities-specific Balance Confidence was slightly more consistent with expected physiological vestibular loss, and it represents another tool in a multidisciplinary vestibular evaluation of the postoperative patient.