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Virtual Realty Therapy's Use In Stroke Recovery

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Pixabay

Virtual reality technology was used to aid stroke patients in their rehabilitation and was shown to help them regain their lost motor abilities.

By Patrick James Hibbert 
9 Aug 2019

Stroke is a leading cause of death in the world. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and smoking are it’s risk factors. Brain cells die during a stroke from a lack of blood flow, and the regions deprived of nutrients and oxygen no longer function resulting in a loss of memory and motor control. In search of a restorative treatment, scientists are studying virtual reality (VR) stroke recovery programs.

Training-based rehabilitation methods often become tiresome, are resource-intensive, and require specialized facilities and equipment. Therefore, there is a need for an economical and safe stroke recovery alternative. 

For this reason, a team of scientists who specialize in physical therapy in Korea addressed this problem by investigated whether virtual reality (VR) rehabilitation training is effective at improving function in chronic stroke patients. Their work was published in Hindawi on June 18th, 2019.

The scientists searched medical research databases for previous studies on this topic and their results. First, 1688 studies were retrieved that all involved chronic stroke, VR, function-related changes, and randomized control trails. 

Then, they assessed the quality of the studies on a scale of 1-10 and found that they ranged between 6 and 8, indicating good quality.

They discovered that using VR therapy for stroke recovery can bring immediate and long term improvement in post-stroke motor function. It produces significant improvements in functional balance, gait velocity, cadence, and stride length. 

There is also evidence it is effective as a complementary therapy to a standard rehabilitation program. However, the VR programs did produce some discomfort and dizziness. Most programs included in the analysis consisted of game-based tasks using Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect, so the patients had little difficulty using the programs. Also, a longer duration of VR treatment was associated with a stronger effect. 

Stroke recovery VR therapy requires a duration of at least 8 weeks and occasional treatment is more effective than treatment every day because chronic stroke patients require rest to learn movements. 

Overall, gait, balance, limb movement, limb strength, and limb muscle tone can all be improved with this therapy. On the whole, VR treatment methods are economical, provide clear motivation, and allow the user to participate in a realistic environment by integrating multiple sensory stimuli through visual, auditory, tactile, and somatosensory systems.

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  1. srimahaJuly 5, 2022 at 8:07 AM

    Thanks for the useful post. I hope to have many more entries or so from you. Very interesting blog. Also visit CBT for depression, this is a helpful resource to enhance knowledge about it.

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