Background Virtual reality in rehabilitative therapy has long been studied as a new modality of treatment for patients with disabilities. However, despite years of research, formal guidelines on the effective use of rehabilitative virtual reality therapy have not yet been established. This suggests that existing literature does not yet provide sufficient evidence from which to draw generalized conclusions regarding the efficacy of virtual reality therapy. Objective To analyze the methodology of recent studies on the use of virtual reality in patients with strokes, spinal cord injuries, amputations, and brain injuries. Method A search was conducted for manuscripts using the terms “virtual reality” in combination with “stroke,” “spinal cord injury,” “amputation,” or “brain injury.” Preliminary results were then screened for randomized control trials that compared the use of virtual reality therapy either as an alternative or adjunct to non-virtual reality intervention. We excluded papers that did not provide full text access to ensure thorough methodological review. Studies were then characterized according to the following themes: rehabilitation diagnoses, virtual reality technology, chronicity, outcome measures, and study design. Results 38 studies were included in our review following the final screen. After characterizing each paper according to the aforementioned themes, we found significant heterogeneity amongst the methodology studies used to investigate the effects of VR therapy. Furthermore, few studies followed their patients for a prolonged period. We also found that most studies were in patients with strokes, with far fewer studies including patients with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, or amputations. Conclusions The substantial heterogeneity we found among virtual reality studies likely contributes to the lack of guidelines regarding the use of virtual reality in rehabilitation. While prior studies have shown significant promise regarding the efficacy of virtual reality therapy, future studies must implement more uniform methodology in order to draw more generalizable conclusions.
Gogoi et al. (Sun,) studied this question.