Videonystagmography in the Otoneurological Evaluation of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease with unknown etiology that affects the central nervous system (CNS). It is an otoneurological disease because some patients present the first signs of this disease in the areas of hearing and balance. The presence of positional nystagmus, according to some authors, can occur in half of 30% of the patients with MS. The spontaneous and semi-spontaneous, unidirectional, bidirectional, or multiple nystagmuses are signs of the disease. Dysfunctions of the vestibular system and of its central connections, as well as lesions in the encephalic trunk, can be revealed by the videonystagmography because it is the method with most sensibility to detect alterations in these structures in patients with MS.

Objectives: To evaluate the importance of the videonystagmography’s achievement in the otoneurological evaluation of the patients with MS.

Data Synthesis: The research was achieved on the basis of data from Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), Integrated Building Environmental Communications System (IBECS), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO), and Cochrane Bibliotheca (1983-2013) with the Keywords multiple sclerosis, nystagmus, and videonystagmography. We selected 11 articles considered relevant for this study. These studies showed that the prevalence of otoneurological signs and symptoms is elevated in patients with MS, especially nystagmus, and that there are too many alterations presented in the videonystagmography.

Conclusion: The videonystagmography’s achievement is essential in the patients with MS because of the large incidence of otoneurological complaints and the large prevalence of alterations in the videonystagmography in these patients.

Keywords: multiple sclerosis, nystagmus, videonystagmography.