Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Two authors (J.H.S. and D.H.L.) independently selected studies for
analysis according to the following inclusion criteria: (a) type of
participants: patients with VN; (b) type of intervention(s):
corticosteroid treatment, combination of corticosteroids plus other
treatments (vestibular exercise, valacyclovir et al.); (c) type of
comparative treatment: Placebo, no treatment, other treatments
(vestibular exercise, valacyclovir et al.) (d) outcome measure(s):
Complete caloric recovery (defined as canal paresis in caloric testing
return within 20-25%), improvement (as %) of canal paresis (CP) in
caloric testing, dizziness handicap inventory (DHI); and (e) type of
study: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Studies were excluded in the
following situations: (a) the study had no original data and/or was an
editorial article or conference abstract;(b) there were no proper
outcomes data; (c) the article was not written in English; (d) the
article was a non-randomized controlled trial, cohort study,
case-control study, animal experiment, chemistry, or cell-line study or
editorial, commentary, review article, or case report. Two independent
authors (J.H.S. and D.H.L.) screened the studies. The studies were
identified by title, abstract, and text in the first screening. The full
texts of the relevant studies were retrieved for validation before final
acceptance in the present systematic review. The search strategy was
based on the PRISMA reporting guideline and a flowchart of the study
selection process is shown in Figure 1.