Saccular Abnormalities in Patients with Head Trauma (Review Article)

Vertigo and imbalance are common symptoms in patients with head trauma. In these patients, the vestibular system and especially saccule may damage. The saccular abnormalities cause more imbalance, especially in standing situations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the saccular system in patients with head trauma. For this aim, we focused on studies that used cVEMP and posturography.

In this study, related articles were searched in different databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Magiran and SID from January 1980 to December 2018. The searched keywords were saccule, head trauma, vertigo and imbalance and finally after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 77 articles were evaluated.

There are vestibular and saccular abnormalities in many patients with head trauma. Results of cVEMP and posturography showed high frequency of these impairments.

Saccular abnormalities could greatly affect balance, especially in standing position. Other factors such as unilateral or bilateral or amount of abnormality, central compensation, and other supportive systems could affect these results.