VR for Healthcare / Stroke Rehabilitation

Stroke Rehabilitation

Overview

  • Evidence on VR use for the rehabilitation of people who have suffered from stroke shows that:

  • A combination of VR with conventional therapy increases therapy time to provide better outcomes than conventional therapy alone for upper limb function & activities of daily living (ADLs).1

  • Conventional therapy when combined with VR provides better outcomes than conventional therapy alone.2,3

  • Same amount of therapy time for both groups, better outcomes when VR intervention is combined with conventional therapy.2,3

  • VR systems purpose-built for rehabilitation are more effective than off-the-shelf systems for motor learning, cognitive function and recovery.4

  • According to evidence, a VR system that is specifically built for rehabilitation should include these 11 key principles of neurorehabilitation:4

    • Massed Practice
    • Increasing Difficulty
    • Dosage
    • Explicit Feedback
    • Structured Practice
    • Implicit Feedback
    • Task-Specific Practice
    • Avatar Representation
    • Variable practice
    • Promote use of Affected Limb
    • Multisensory stimulation
  1. Virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation
    Author(s):
    Laver KE, Lange B, George S, Deutsch JE, Saposnik G, Crotty M
    Published:
    Cochrane Database Syst Rev
    Date:
    November 2017
  2. Virtual reality for the rehabilitation of the upper limb motor function after stroke: a prospective controlled trial
    Author(s):
    Turolla A, Dam M, Ventura L, et al.
    Published:
    J Neuroeng Rehabil
    Date:
    August 2013
  3. Virtual reality for upper limb rehabilitation in subacute and chronic stroke: a randomized controlled trial
    Author(s):
    Kiper P, Szczudlik A, Agostini M, et al.
    Published:
    Arch Phys Med Rehabil
    Date:
    May 2019
  4. Effect of specific over nonspecific VR-based rehabilitation on poststroke motor recovery: a systematic meta-analysis
    Author(s):
    Maier M, Rubio Ballester B, Duff A, Duarte Oller E, Verschure PFMJ
    Published:
    Neurorehabil Neural Repair
    Date:
    February 2019

  1. Laver KE, Lange B, George S, Deutsch JE, Saposnik G, Crotty M. Virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Nov 20;1:CD008349. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008349.pub4
  2. Turolla A, Dam M, Ventura L, et al. Virtual reality for the rehabilitation of the upper limb motor function after stroke: A prospective controlled trial. J NeuroEng Rehabil. 2013;10(85). doi:10.1186/1743-0003-10-85
  3. Kiper P, Szczudlik A, Agostini M, et al. Virtual reality for upper limb rehabilitation in subacute and chronic stroke: A randomized controlled trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2018;99(5)834-842.e4.
  4. Maier M, Rubio Ballester B, Duff A, Duarte Oller E, Verschure PFMJ. Effect of specific over nonspecific VR-based rehabilitation on poststroke motor recovery: a systematic meta-analysis. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2019;33(2):112-129. doi:10.1177/1545968318820169

20508, Rev. A 04/21 USA