Vestibular assessment in children aged zero to twelve years: an integrative review

OBJECTIVE: To describe the main vestibular assessment tests performed in children aged zero to twelve years and the main causes of referral for vestibular assessment. METHODS: The review was guided by the following question: What are the main vestibular assessment tests performed in children aged zero to twelve years and the main causes of referral for vestibular assessment? The PVO strategy was used, being defined as: Population (P) – newborns and children; study Variable (V) – causes of referral for vestibular assessment; study Outcome (O): the main vestibular assessment tests and the main findings. This study was carried out using the main available databases in the months of July, August and September 2021, with no restrictions regarding language and publication date, namely: PubMed, Web of Science, Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Latin-American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS), ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library and Embase. The descriptors were obtained from the MeSH database: newborn, infant, child, children, vestibular screening, vestibular infant screening, vestibular newborn screening, test, vestibular function, vestibular function test. RESULTS: A total of 7,078 studies were identified. After reading the titles and abstracts, 107 of them were selected, with 101 remaining after the exclusion of duplicates. After the full-text reading, 31 articles were included. It was observed that the most frequently used tests were: rotational tests, caloric stimulation and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential and the main causes of referral for vestibular evaluation were hearing loss and vestibular screening. CONCLUSION: The main tests for vestibular screening and/or assessment of children aged zero to twelve years are the rotary chair testing, caloric stimulation and cervical-vestibular evoked myogenic potential. Consequently, performing these procedures is extremely important, since the presence of vestibular dysfunction is quite common in the studied population.