Could virtual reality act as an adjunctive analgesic during routine surgical procedures? A small trial by a team of orthopedic surgeons from Melbourne, Australia, suggests it might be.
In this pilot study, nine patients underwent immersive virtual reality with their standard sedation in addition to regular regional anesthesia, and were compared to a control group of another 10 patients who had standard regional anesthesia with sedation alone (neither group had general anesthesia).
Outcome measures included patient tolerance, patient satisfaction in sedation, amount of propofol used, and feasibility of use of VR in the operating room. The surgeries performed were standard orthopedic operations, primarily hip and knee replacements, but also some ankle surgeries. The virtual reality simulation used was modeled after the popular "Snow World" that came out of the University of Washington for burn injury pain relief.
While the scenario presented to the patients involved an Oculus Rift headset, the level of interactivity was fairly low, as patients simply watched VR scenes. Researchers found that the virtual reality group trended toward a lower amount of propofol overall, although the difference was not statistically significant (155 ± 45 mg/h for control group and 63 ± 21 mg/h in the virtual reality group, mean difference -91.6 mg/h, 95% CI -200 to 16.87 mg/h, P=0.088). Additionally, there were no serious adverse reactions, and the authors felt this was a feasible method to further evaluate for continued use in the operating room in future trials.
It's still way too early to say if such a method holds true promise as an adjunct to analgesia and sedation in the operating room, but it certainly is an exciting possible option that likely has far fewer side effects than traditional medications. We will be eagerly awaiting any further studies that follow-up on this pilot study.
This article originally appeared on iMedicalApps.com.