Year	2020
Project Title	Determining the Incidence of Vestibular Dysfunction in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Admitted to Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation
Participator	Jasin Wong
Job Title	Co-investigator
Period	2020.02 ~ 2021.08
Unit	Research Accelerator Program at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Abstract	Background:  Vestibular dysfunction is a common sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI) affecting up to  50% of TBI patients at 5 years after injury, making it a significant medical and public health concern [1].   Due to the multifaceted presentation of these symptoms, evaluation is challenging, and there is  currently no standardized approach to screening. While the incidence of vestibular dysfunction has been  studied in mild TBI (mTBI) and sports related concussions, there is a gap in the literature regarding the  incidence of vestibular dysfunction in moderate to severe TBI patients in acute rehabilitation [2,3].    The benefits of having an established vestibular dysfunction screening and rehabilitation program are  multifold. Vestibular rehabilitation following TBI has demonstrated improvements in cognitive function,  ability to return to activities of daily living, and ability to return to work [4]. While one prior single blind  randomized controlled trial aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured vestibular rehabilitation  program in TBI individuals, there is a need for a large-scale study to evaluate the effectiveness of  screening for vestibular dysfunction in order to create a systematic approach [5].    Many TBI patients are not diagnosed with vestibular dysfunction until much later in their hospital course  which impedes participation in therapy and likely has a detrimental effect on their rate of recovery.  Identifying these patients earlier in their rehabilitation course will allow interventions that will improve  and accelerate patient outcomes.  An additional benefit of this study is to determine the incidence of  moderate to severely-injured TBI patients to outline the necessary resources to care for patients with  this problem.    Specific Aim 1: To determine the incidence of vestibular dysfunction in traumatic brain injury patients  admitted to acute inpatient rehabilitation.    Specific Aim 2: To validate the AbilityLab Vestibular Screening Tool (AVeST), a measure designed to  quickly screen individuals for vestibular function following TBI.
Language	English