Walter J. Meyer1, Miriam Gonzalez1, Robert A Rodriguez BA1, Raquel Pena1, Hunter G. Hoffman2
1) Texas 2) United States
Background and aims: Children with severe burn injuries typically experience severe to excruciating pain during wound debridement/cleaning/scrubbing of their burn wounds. This clinical study explored whether adjunctive immersive virtual reality distraction could be effective as a non-pharmacologic analgesic to help reduce the severe acute procedural pain of children during severe burn wound debridement/scrubbing for up to 10 days of wound care per patient.
Methods. 48 predominantly Hispanic children with large severe burn wounds (mean = 40% TBSA), reporting pain worst pain intensity of 5 or higher on a zero to 10 scale, were studied. Using a within-subjects, within-wound care design, in addition to their usual pain medications, each patient received No Virtual reality distraction during some portions of their wound care, and Yes Virtual Reality (VR) during other portions of their wound care, treatment order randomized. Patients rated their pain during No VR vs. during Yes VR using Graphic Rating Scales. VR was delivered via custom robot-like VR goggles that did not touch the patient’s face.
Results. Using paired t-tests, compared to pain during “No-VR” standard of care, patients reported significant reductions in pain during “Yes-VR”. On Day 1, children reported significant reductions in worst pain intensity (Mean = 8.52 during No-VR, vs. 5.10 during VR, p < .001. SD = 3.32, and showed no decline in analgesic effectiveness day after day for 10 days out.
Conclusions. Although minimizing contact with the equipment is a challenge, immersive Virtual Reality is quickly becoming widely available, and shows strong potential as a powerful non-pharmacologic analgesic, which may prove particularly valuable in developing countries.
Acknowledgments/Disclosures. This research was financed through a Shriners Hospital for Children grant (award ID #71011-GAL, PI Walter Meyer) using VR equipment developed by NIH Grant # R01GM042725-17A1 to David Paterson Ph.D. University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
