Short-term efficacy of Epley's manoeuvre: a double-blind randomised trial.
BACKGROUND
Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo of the posterior canal (PC-BPPV) is a common vestibular disorder and can be easily treated with Epley's manoeuvre. Thus far, the short-term efficacy of Epley's manoeuvre for treatment of PC-BPPV is unknown.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of Epley's manoeuvre for treatment of PC-BPPV 24 h after applying the manoeuvre.


METHODS
The short-term efficacy of Epley's manoeuvre was compared with a sham procedure in 66 patients with PC-BPPV by using a double-blind randomised study design.


RESULTS
24 h after treatment, 28 of 35 (80%) patients in the Epley's manoeuvre group had neither vertigo nor nystagmus on positional testing compared with 3 of 31 (10%) patients in the sham group (p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Epley's manoeuvre is shown to resolve PC-BPPV both effectively and rapidly.
Department of Neurology, Charité, Campus Virchow-Klinkum, Berlin, Germany. michael.von_brevern@charite.de
M
M
von Brevern
T
T
Seelig
A
A
Radtke
K
K
Tiel-Wilck
H
H
Neuhauser
T
T
Lempert
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D019416:Head Movements; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010037:Otolithic Membrane / Q000473:pathology; D011187:Posture; D012665:Semicircular Canals / Q000473:pathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014717:Vertigo / Q000628:therapy*; D015837:Vestibular Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy*