Effects of Immersive Virtual Reality on Upper-Extremity Stroke Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Didn't your competent?doctor prescribe this years ago? Oh, you don't have a functioning stroke doctor, do you?

• immersive virtual reality (11 posts to January 2021)

Effects of Immersive Virtual Reality on Upper-Extremity Stroke Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

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  Umberto Aguglia

  Georgios Tsivgoulis
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• Table of Contents
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions
  • Supplementary Materials
  • Author Contributions
  • Funding
  • Institutional Review Board Statement
  • Informed Consent Statement
  • Data Availability Statement
  • Conflicts of Interest
  • References

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by

Pawel Kiper

^1,*,

Nathalie Godart

²,

Manon Cavalier

²,

Charlotte Berard

²,

Błażej Cieślik

¹,

Sara Federico

¹,

Aleksandra Kiper

³,

Leonardo Pellicciari

⁴ and

Roberto Meroni

^2,5

¹

Healthcare Innovation Technology Lab, IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, 30126 Venice, Italy

²

Department of Physiotherapy, LUNEX International University of Health Exercise and Sports, L-4671 Differdange, Luxembourg

³

Doctoral School of the University of Rzeszów, University of Rzeszów, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland

⁴

IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, 40139 Bologna, Italy

⁵

Luxembourg Health & Sport Sciences Research Institute ASBL, L-4671 Differdange, Luxembourg

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

J. Clin. Med. 2024, 13(1), 146; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13010146

Submission received: 2 November 2023 / Revised: 7 December 2023 / Accepted: 22 December 2023 / Published: 27 December 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-stroke Rehabilitation: Challenges and New Perspectives)

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Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) is an innovative rehabilitation tool increasingly used in stroke rehabilitation. Fully immersive VR is a type of VR that closely simulates real-life scenarios, providing a high level of immersion, and has shown promising results in improving rehabilitation functions. This study aimed to assess the effect of immersive VR-based therapy for stroke patients on the upper extremities, activities of daily living (ADLs), and pain reduction and its acceptability and side effects. For this review, we gathered all suitable randomized controlled trials from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science. Out of 1532, 10 articles were included, with 324 participants. The results show that immersive VR offers greater benefits in comparison with conventional rehabilitation, with significant improvements observed in ADLs (SMD 0.58, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.91, I² = 0%, p = 0.0005), overall function as measured by the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (MD 6.33, 95% CI 4.15 to 8.50, I² = 25%, p = 0.00001), and subscales for the shoulder (MD 4.96, 95% CI—1.90–8.03, I² = 25%, p = 0.002), wrist (MD 2.41, 95% CI—0.56–4.26, I² = 0%, p = 0.01), and hand (MD 2.60, 95% CI—0.70–4.5°, I² = 0%, p = 0.007). These findings highlight the potential of immersive VR as a valuable therapeutic option for stroke survivors, enhancing(But survivors want recovery. Where are the EXACT PROTOCOLS that deliver that?) their ADL performance and upper-limb function. The immersive nature of VR provides an engaging and immersive environment for rehabilitation.