OSCILLOPSIA AND DIZZINESS RESULTING FROM GENTAMICIN ANTIBIOTIC-TREATMENT - A CLINICAL NOTE ON THE BENEFICIAL-EFFECTS OF VESTIBULAR REHABILITATION THERAPY

Oscillopsia, defined as the apparent movement of the visual world, is a condition which may result from lesions at any point along the vesti buloocular reflex pathways. Dizziness, a sensation of postural instabi lity, often accompanies oscillopsia and leads to difficulty moving ('a taxia'). Oscillopsia and dizziness are particularly severe when they a re caused by a bilateral loss of function of the vestibular receptor c ells in the inner ear, such as sometimes occurs with the use of aminog lycoside antibiotics, e.g, gentamicin. This class of antibiotics must be used for some kinds of potentially life-threatening bacterial infec tions; however, vestibular receptor cell loss ('vestibulotoxicity') of ten results, leading to the development of oscillopsia, dizziness and other signs of bilateral vestibular damage. The purpose of this short review is to summarise the most recent data on gentamicin vestibulotox icity and the various treatment options. It is concluded that drug the rapy is of no benefit in the case of vestibulotoxicity and that vestib ular rehabilitation therapy is the only effective treatment option.