Virtual Reality: An Emerging Tool to Treat Pain
Abstract
Excessive pain during medical procedures is a widespread problem. Pain during medivac, and during medical procedures for combat-related injuries is often not adequately controlled using pharmacologies alone. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) is being explored in a growing number of civilian medical centers as a non-drug distraction technique to augment procedural pain control in trauma and burn patients. The feeling of pain experienced during medical treatment can be reduced through sophisticated virtual reality helmets, a simple computer game and the patients willingness to become immersed in the virtual world. The essence of VR is the illusion users have of going inside the computer-generated environment. Being drawn into another world drains a lot of attentional resources, leaving less attention available to process pain signals. Preliminary data show that rather than having pain as the focus of their attention, for many patients in VR, the wound care becomes more of an annoyance, distracting patients from their primary goal of exploring the virtual world. As a result, this type of distraction even reduces the dosage of pain medications required to make patients comfortable, which could be of great help during medevac from theater. There is a need to further assess the methodology and the psychological aspects of this technique in order to improve its analgesic property. Work is in progress to miniaturize the tool and make it applicable as close as possible to the front line for use by combat medics and forward medical facilities (NATO Role 1 and Role 2).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA581359
Entities
People
- Christopher Maani
- Hunter Hoffman
- J. Belard
- Jay H. Shore
- Kathryn Gaylord
Organizations
- United States Army Institute of Surgical Research