Semont's maneuver for treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

Along with Epley's canalith repositioning maneuver, the Semont maneuver is also recognized as an effective physical therapy for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. However, the details of this maneuver are not well known, presumably because of the obscurity of the original description by Semont et al. In Japan, the "Semont liberatory maneuver," as described by Brandt, is accepted as the "original" Semont maneuver. However, the two maneuvers are not identical. The aim of this paper was to reproduce the original procedure of Semont's as presented by A. Semont himself at the 10 ^th Nagoya Otorhinolaryngological Forum held in Nagoya, Japan, in 2006. This lecture clarified some obscure points in the original paper; however, the procedure described at the forum was not a detailed reproduction of the original Semont maneuver, but was somewhat more complicated. Also of note, Semont decisively denied the cupulolithiasis theory and explained the usefulness of his maneuver according to the canalolithiasis theory.