U.S. Launch of Epley Omniax® System

New technology gives millions with vertigo hope for effective treatment.

The Epley Omniax® System, a software-guided patient positioning system designed to help physicians and other care providers to accurately diagnose and effectively treat vestibular disorders including the most common type, known as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). In any year an estimated 15 million Americans suffer from vestibular (inner ear) vertigo, often with debilitating symptoms. The Epley Omniax System offers hope for the chronically dizzy by giving care providers a means to accurately diagnose the causes of positional vertigo, as well as to treat those causes more effectively.    

 

Invented by Dr. John Epley (developer of the now-common “Epley Maneuver” for treating BPPV) the Omniax System derives its name from the 360-degree multi-axial positioning it provides. The software-driven patient positioning system uses infrared goggles to assist care-givers in analyzing abnormal eye movement patterns that are associated with the shifting of loose particles in the inner-ear canals which cause BPPV. The Omniax System is unique in that it gives physicians and therapists the ability to rotate patients to virtually any position, including a 360-degree flip. The science behind the Omniax System is derived from Dr. Epley’s paradigm-shifting work in the vestibular field.

 

The Omniax System is the first device to offer precise nystagmus-based evaluation. It provides caregivers unmatched ability to detect, differentiate, treat and manage balance and dizziness disorders. Until now, BPPV diagnosis and treatment has involved a significant amount of educated guesswork and, if it is BPPV, manual maneuvers which tend to be both difficult to accomplish and imprecise. When BPPV is diagnosed, the current standard of care is to perform The Epley Maneuver manually.

 

Epley explains that balance disorders often involve loose particles in more than one inner ear canal, or particles in a canal other than the posterior canal. Occasionally the problem is caused by some other issue, such damage to the brain or a problem elsewhere in the ear. Too often, if the Epley Maneuver doesn’t solve the problem, patients are told there is nothing that can be done and they need to learn to live with it.

 

With the Omniax System, a physician can now rule in or rule out various causes of vestibular vertigo and if it is determined that the cause is particles in the ear canal, the Omniax System provides a means to more easily and more effectively treat it. Unlike other devices, such as a rotational chair, the Omniax System provides both diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its multi-axial rotational capability allows for more comprehensive treatment where manual maneuvers are problematic, such as when the patient is frail, obese, or disabled. The Omniax allows patients to be suspended in secure positions on a 360  degree axis. This allows ease and safety of movement, as well as more accurate diagnoses than traditional methods.

 

With its recent market launch, Vesticon has begun working with clinics across the US to install new systems. In addition to the system at Dr. Epley’s practice in Portland, Ore., beta systems exist at the Legacy Holiday Park Clinical Research Technology Center in Portland, the Senta Medical Clinic in San Diego, Calif., the Florida Ear and Balance Center in Celebration, Fla., the Ear and Balance Institute in Baton Rouge, La., the Michigan Ear Institute in Farmington Hills, Mich., and the Hearing and Balance Unit of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown, NSW, Australia.

 

In March, Vesticon installed new commercial units at the Werner Institute of Balance and Dizziness in Las Vegas, Nev., and at the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

About Vesticon

Vesticon is a Portland, Oregon- based company founded in 2003. The company is focused on practical solutions that narrow the gap between medical knowledge of the vestibular system and putting that knowledge into practice at the clinical level. Founded by current president and CEO Cathryn Epley, Vest icon’s simply-stated mission is “Victory Over Vertigo.” Research for the company’s three products currently in development has been generously supported by the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Program (NIH SBIR). The first of these products to gain FDA approval is the Epley Omniax System™, invented by Dr. John Epley, who first developed the Epley Maneuver, based on his canalith and canalith repositioning theories. The Company is the largest recipient of NIH SBIR grants in the state of Oregon. To learn more, visit www.vesticon.com or call 503-230-0539.

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