Effects of Restrained Cervical Mobility on Involuntary Eye Movements

AbstractThe presumed connection between cervicogenic dizziness, cervical evoked involuntary eye movements and intervertebral joint blocks of the high cervical spine serves as a starting point for the manual therapist in treating patients suffering from neck pain, headache and dizziness. Cervical evoked involuntary eye movements are of diagnostic importance and proprioceptive cervical positional nystagmus is seen as pathognomic for high cervical intervertebral joint blocks. In a period of two years, 157 patients with neck pain, headache and dizziness were referred to and examined in our department. Thirty eight patients were diagnosed as having functional vertebrobasilar insufficiency and 17 patients presented with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. These 55 patients were excluded from the study. The remaining 102 patients were included in the study. Passive functional tests of cervical motion segments OCC-C1, C1 through C4 according to Van der EI and Dvorak and Dvorak and the test for cervical evoked i...