Therapeutics
Jong-Hyeon Yoon, MD
Resident
Ajou university medical center
Suwon-si, Kyonggi-do, Republic of Korea
Hyun-Ho Choi, MD
Resident
Ajou university medical center
Suwon-si, Kyonggi-do, Republic of Korea
Kil-Yong Jeong, MD
Professor
Ajou university medical center
Suwon-si, Kyonggi-do, Republic of Korea
Seung-Hyun Yoon, PhD
Professor
Ajou university medical center
Suwon-si, Kyonggi-do, Republic of Korea
To identify the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) assisted rehabilitation as a therapeutic option in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke.
Design:
Thirty-four participants with TBI or stroke (within 12 months after onset, Brunnstrom stage ≥ 3 and Mini Mental State Examination ≥ 10) were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: (1) control group (n=10), (2) low-dose group (n=13), and (3) high-dose group (n=11). In the control group, participants received 65 minutes of conventional occupational therapy per day. The low-dose group received 50 minutes of conventional occupational therapy combined with 15 minutes of VR therapy, while the high-dose group underwent 50 minutes of the conventional rehabilitation therapy along with 30 minutes of VR therapy. Therapies were performed 5 times a week for 4 weeks. Fugl-Meyer assessment-Upper Extremity (FMA), Box and Block Test (BBT), Manual Function Test (MFT), Modified Barthel Index-Upper Extremity (MBI), Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) were conducted for pre-, 2 weeks and 4 weeks post-therapy.
Results:
There are no significant differences in baseline characteristics between three groups. Although significant improvement in all outcomes at 2 weeks and 4 weeks post-therapy was observed in the three groups compared to the initial evaluation, there was no significant difference among the three groups. And there were no adverse events reported.
Conclusion:
(1) There was no difference between the control group and the low-dose group, suggesting that there was no difference in effectiveness between conventional therapy and virtual reality rehabilitation. (2) The lack of significant difference between the low-dose and high-dose groups is presumed to be due to the absence of an escalation effect in VR therapy. Future research is needed including a larger number of subjects and considering treatment dose, frequency, and escalation effect.
