Protect yourself from risk of injury with the Fall Risk Assessment Program
Montgomery Sports Medicine Center has made preventative medicine one of our top priorities. Our physicians are committed to helping patients avoid the dangers of falling and its potentially serious consequences. Falling has become the number one cause of injury for anyone over the age of 18 and it is the leading cause of emergency hospital visits for those over 25.
MSMC is pleased to announce the availability of VNG/Balance Testing. This state of the art process will assist our physicians in diagnosing potential balance and fall related issues as well as provide information needed for a prescribed treatment plan. There are three steps integral to the process of evaluating a patient. The results of each indicating whether the next step is recommended. Together, these strategies enable our physicians to determine not only a patient’s risk of falling but also the ability to diagnose the cause of that risk and determine effective treatment options.
VNG/Balance Testing consists of three components:
- Fall Risk Assessment Questionnaire
- Posturography Equipment/Balance Test
- Diagnostic Testing
The patient starts with answering a few questions. If the questionnaire results indicate that there could be a risk for falling, we then have the patient take two minutes to step on a piece of posturography equipment. This piece of equipment looks like a weight scale but with extra computerized accessories. In just seconds, a detailed printout documents the patient’s age, sex, height, weight, body mass index, and balance/stabiltiy/fall risk score.
If the posturography test indicates positively that a person/patient has some balance issues then we move onto diagnostic testing that can provide our physicians with even more detailed information needed for treatment planning. In this test the patient will wear a pair of special infrared goggles that are connected to a computer that is able to measure, by the patients eye and head movements, the oculomotor and vestibular systems-in other words, the patient’s actual equilibrium and balance transmissions to his or her brain, which are directly tied to the risk of falling.
VNG & Balance Testing helps diagnose the cause of a patients risk of falling, enabling our physicians to direct patients to the proper and most effective method of treatment. Since balance and equilibrium begins to worsen around age 60. It is even more important for people in that age range to make balance testing an automatic part of any annual checkup.