Halwani A1
1Université Grenoble Alpes, Facultés de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Grenoble, France
Background: Every year, about 15 million people around the world suffer from a stroke. According to Aburb and Lamontagne (2013), 5 million people die and another 5 million suffer from a gait and balance disorder which will persist even through the chronic stages, which will increase the risk of falls and will jeopardize the autonomy and independence of the person affected during her/his daily activities.
By its playful nature, Virtual Reality (VR) leads the patient to synchronously repeat a task, thus promoting motor learning and stimulating neuroplasticity. This prompted us to undertake a literature review in order to assess the effectiveness of VR compared to conventional treatment on the degree of functioning of a person with stroke, especially for indicators of postural control, balance and walking. The results, evaluated by objective means, are significant, very satisfying and encouraging.
Purpose:
- To observe the effect of adding VR to conventional therapy in gait and/or balance rehabilitation in patients with hemiplegic stroke.
- To provide an overview of physical activity limitations and balance disorder in patients after stroke.
- To suggest rehabilitation means to prevent falls, facilitate postural recovery and improve balance.
Methods: In order to facilitate the search for relevant information on this topic, a PICO question formulation becomes necessary: is it important to know to what extent the VR (Intervention) is more effective than the conventional physiotherapy treatment (Comparison) on the functioning, in particular on postural control, balance and walking (Outcomes)in people with stroke (Problem)?
A literature review was carried out on 3 databases: EBSCO, Pubmed and Pedro, and 25 publications were identified.
The key words used for literature search were in English in order to have access to relevant articles, as very few studies were published in French. Key words: stroke, Virtual reality, functional outcome or improvement, gait, postural control, static balance, dynamic balance.
Several combinations were used in order to retrieve scientific articles.
The majority of the studies had evaluated the static and dynamic balance through the use of diagnostic tests or subjective scales such as the Berg Balance Scale, the Timed Up and Go, the 6-Minute Walk Test and the 10-Meter walk test.
Results: Based on the methodological elements in the review of each previously mentioned researchwork, the results have shown that VR improves the functioning in terms of posture, balance and walking compared to conventional treatments.
Conclusion(s): VR has yielded significant benefits on posture, balance and walking, but minimal because of the variety of systems, approaches, and duration of treatment. Many studies evaluated the functional abilities of upper limbs.
The use of VR is recommended in addition to conventional treatment for 20 minutes each day 5 times a week for 3 consecutive weeks.
Implications: Further research is needed to estimate the time required to achieve maximum efficiency, but above all for the assessment of postural deviations on the degree of functional recovery after stroke, and the help of the individual who suffered from a stroke to improve their balance, posture and walking.
Keywords: Stroke, Gait, Virtual Reality
Funding acknowledgements: Not applicable
By its playful nature, Virtual Reality (VR) leads the patient to synchronously repeat a task, thus promoting motor learning and stimulating neuroplasticity. This prompted us to undertake a literature review in order to assess the effectiveness of VR compared to conventional treatment on the degree of functioning of a person with stroke, especially for indicators of postural control, balance and walking. The results, evaluated by objective means, are significant, very satisfying and encouraging.
Purpose:
- To observe the effect of adding VR to conventional therapy in gait and/or balance rehabilitation in patients with hemiplegic stroke.
- To provide an overview of physical activity limitations and balance disorder in patients after stroke.
- To suggest rehabilitation means to prevent falls, facilitate postural recovery and improve balance.
Methods: In order to facilitate the search for relevant information on this topic, a PICO question formulation becomes necessary: is it important to know to what extent the VR (Intervention) is more effective than the conventional physiotherapy treatment (Comparison) on the functioning, in particular on postural control, balance and walking (Outcomes)in people with stroke (Problem)?
A literature review was carried out on 3 databases: EBSCO, Pubmed and Pedro, and 25 publications were identified.
The key words used for literature search were in English in order to have access to relevant articles, as very few studies were published in French. Key words: stroke, Virtual reality, functional outcome or improvement, gait, postural control, static balance, dynamic balance.
Several combinations were used in order to retrieve scientific articles.
The majority of the studies had evaluated the static and dynamic balance through the use of diagnostic tests or subjective scales such as the Berg Balance Scale, the Timed Up and Go, the 6-Minute Walk Test and the 10-Meter walk test.
Results: Based on the methodological elements in the review of each previously mentioned researchwork, the results have shown that VR improves the functioning in terms of posture, balance and walking compared to conventional treatments.
Conclusion(s): VR has yielded significant benefits on posture, balance and walking, but minimal because of the variety of systems, approaches, and duration of treatment. Many studies evaluated the functional abilities of upper limbs.
The use of VR is recommended in addition to conventional treatment for 20 minutes each day 5 times a week for 3 consecutive weeks.
Implications: Further research is needed to estimate the time required to achieve maximum efficiency, but above all for the assessment of postural deviations on the degree of functional recovery after stroke, and the help of the individual who suffered from a stroke to improve their balance, posture and walking.
Keywords: Stroke, Gait, Virtual Reality
Funding acknowledgements: Not applicable
Topic: Neurology: stroke
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: Université Grenoble Alpes
Ethics committee: Dominique Perennou
Ethics number: 476637120
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
