Abstract

Objective: the purpose of this study was to evaluate effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) in decreasing pain and facilitating physical therapy (PT) procedures for adolescent burned Patients.

Methods: A two–weeks randomized controlled study including fifty-six adolescent burned patients who randomly divided into two groups. VR group received VR during PT session while control group received PT without VR. Pain was assessed by adolescent pediatric pain tool (APPT) and ROM was assessed by goniometer at the end of each session.

Results: The results of study reported highly significant and substantial declines in all pain outcomes (mean total painful areas, pain intensity, sensory, affective, evaluative and temporal dimensions of pain) in VR group compared to control group, p value ≤0.001. The percentage of decrement of pain intensity in VR group was 55.6% while for control group was 15.6%. Regarding ROM measurement, for the first three sessions, the results of the study showed that there was no significant difference between both groups in mean ROM of hip extension, hip abduction, knee extension and ankle dorsiflexion, p value >0.05, however for the last three sessions, there was highly significant difference between both groups, p value <0.05. The percentage of improvement in ROM of Hip extension, hip abduction, dorsiflexion and knee extension in VR group were 14.2%, 85.2%, 26.1% and 82.2% respectively, while for control group the percentage of improvement were 8.3%, 24.7%, 11.8% and 24.1% respectively.

Conclusion: Based on the obtained results and previous studies results, our study concluded that virtual reality is powerful analgesic non-pharmacological adjunctive tool that helps in decreasing procedural pain during PT procedures. Its analgesic effects have beneficial effects on ROM of lower extremity of adolescent burned patients.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Physical Therapy, Pain, Range of motion, Burn