Comparative study of epley's and semont's maneuver in treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is the most common cause of true vertigo resulting from displacement of otoconia into the semicircular canals. Both Epley's and Semont's maneuver have been used since decades with rewarding results. Aim: This study aims to compare the efficacy between the two methods in inducing remission of symptoms and preventing relapse. Materials and Methods: This study has been done in department of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck surgery of a rural tertiary care hospital in India with 10 month duration from April 2019 to February 2020. Sixty-six diagnosed cases of BPPV were included in the study and two groups were created. First group (A) included those 33 patients treated with Epley's and other group (B) included the rest 33 patients those had been treated by Semont's maneuver and the results compared. We excluded the patients having central or other peripheral causes of vertigo and those suffering from cervical spondilopathy. Data collected as entered into Microsoft office excel 2013 and were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 [IBM, New York, USA]. Chi-square test applied and statistical significance was set at P ≤ 0.05. Results: Both the treatments showed relief of symptom within 1st week of treatment. Thirty patients of Group A out of 33 (90.9%) o and 22 patients of group B out of 33 (67%) got relieved from symptoms. Patients followed up for 6 months post treatment for recurrence and it was found that 3 patients in group A and 6 patients in group B showed relapse of symptoms requiring further treatment. Conclusion: Both methods efficient in treating BPPV with Epley's maneuver relatively more effective than Semont's in terms of remission (statistically significant with P = 0.016 and both maneuvers gave similar results in terms of relapse.