APPLICATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF VIRTUAL REALITY TOOLS TO COMPLEMENT CONVENTIONAL THERAPY IN HEMIPLEGIA - CASE REPORT

T.D. Oberg¹, R.C. Turolla de Souza¹, A.J. Martins², L.L. Min¹, G.M.A.S. Tedrus³, G. Santaterra Barros³, A.F. Brandão¹, A.C. Buchene Pieroni⁴

¹Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Neurology, Campinas, Brazil, ²Pontificia Universidade Católica de Campinas, Faculty of Physiotherapy, Campinas, Brazil, ³Pontificia Universidade Católica de Campinas, Faculty of Medicine, Campinas, Brazil, ⁴Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Campinas, Faculty of Physiotherapy, Campinas, Brazil

Background: Motor symptoms that affect functionality are common after a stroke. In Brazil, hemiplegia is considered one of the major causes of functional disability impacting the country's public health system. Virtual Reality Systems are used in science as teaching and learning tools. In the neurofunctional rehabilitation, it offers a opportunity to complement and stimulate conventional therapy in people with physical and cognitive impairments. However, many people do not have access to this instrument due to the high cost.

Purpose: To analyze the range of motion of the upper hemiplegic limb using conventional virtual reality applications in parallel with physical therapy sessions.

Methods: This is a case report, carried out in a Clinical School of Physiotherapy in the city of Campinas, SP, Brazil, which was part of the application and development of a low-cost tool. The intervention was performed twice a week for four months. Each session lasted 50 minutes, with 15 minutes of assistive technology using the RGB Tracker software and the remaining time with conventional therapy previously used. The comparative analysis was performed using graphs generated by Microsoft Excel.

Results: Descriptive and comparative results were generated using Microsoft Excel. There was an increase of 21º in the range of motion in shoulder abduction and of 10º in elbow flexion of the paretic upper limb (left). In one evaluation, a reduction in the difference in range of motion was observed.

Conclusions: It was concluded that assistive technology is, in this case, beneficial when used as a resource to support conventional therapies to increase shoulder and elbow range in stroke patients. It is suggested that new studies be carried out with the largest possible and improved sample; since only the passive joint movement domain showed improvement in this case.

Implications: This study will improve the clinical and social conditions of the community as it is a low cost experimental equipment.

Funding acknowledgements: The study was funded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - FAPESP

Keywords:
Assistive Technology
Stroke
Rehabilitation

Topics:
Disability & rehabilitation
Neurology: stroke

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Campinas

Committee: Research Ethics Committee of the Pontificia Catholic University of Campinas

Ethics number: 39067720.6.0000.5481