Quality of Life and Dynamic Visual Acuity in Patients With Bilateral Vestibulopathy: the Impact of Covert-saccades

Patients with chronic bilateral vestibular hypofunction may suffer from a visual instability during head movement called oscillopsia. Visual consequence of vestibular deficit can lead to a severe impairment of their quality of life. However, correcting saccades during rapid head movement, called covert-saccades, have been more recently identified. These saccades, which occur during the head movement in patients with vestibular hypofunction, present a very short latency. They could compensate for the lack of vestibular-ocular reflex and greatly decrease oscillopsia and visual impairment. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential functional benefice of these compensatory movements in a population of 20 patients with chronic bilateral areflexia, in a cross-sectional study.