• Carrie W Hoppes, Michael Vernon, Rebecca L Morrell, and Susan L Whitney.
• U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence, Army-Baylor University Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234, USA.
• Mil Med. 2022 Jul 1; 187 (7-8): e1011-e1015.

AbstractIndividuals with mal de debarquement syndrome (MdDS) describe symptoms of swaying, rocking, and/or bobbing after sea or air travel. These symptoms may be because of maladaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) to roll of the head during rotation. Dai and colleagues have developed a treatment paradigm that involves passive roll of the patient's head while watching optokinetic stripes, resulting in adaption of the VOR and improvement of MdDS. The purpose of this case report is to describe replication of this treatment paradigm in a virtual reality environment with successful resolution of symptoms in two visits. A 39-year-old female reported swaying and rocking after returning from a 7-day cruise. The patient was treated with two sessions in a computer-assisted rehabilitation environment (CAREN). The patient canceled her third visit because of complete resolution of her symptoms. Her Global Rating of Change was +7 (on a 15-point scale of -7 to +7). She had returned to her prior level of function. This case report is the first to describe use of the CAREN for effective treatment of MdDS by replicating the treatment paradigm developed by Dai and colleagues.Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2021. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

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