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Virtual reality therapy reduces hand impairment years after stroke

מתוך medicontext.co.il
By Faith Reidenbach

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Independent of any other therapy, a virtual reality system significantly improves hand impairment in stroke patients, according to a presentation by computer engineer Dr. Grigore C. Burdea at a "Medicine Meets Virtual Reality" conference last week in Newport Beach, California.

"The most important thing is that we have improved people with totally nonconventional therapy," the Rutgers University-based researcher said in a telephone interview after the meeting. Prior to the study, he emphasized, "none of the patients went to any clinics; none of them did any of the current methods of rehab."

In the new system, for which a patent application is pending, the patient dons two gloves, equipped with sensors, that are linked to virtual hands on a computer monitor. By moving the gloves, the patients tries to do things with the virtual hands such as play a piano keyboard, grab a butterfly, or shake hands.

"You move the expectation of the patients from being bored in rehab, which is the standard today, to having fun," Dr. Burdea said. "Half of this, let's face it, is convincing the patient that he should get better." The system also offers the potential for "tele-rehabilitation."

Dr. Burdea developed the virtual reality system in collaboration with colleagues from Rutgers, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Their latest pilot study was funded in part by the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology.

In a study involving four patients who had experienced a stroke 1 to 4 years previously, all of them showed improvement on measures such as finger speed and finger strength after just 3 weeks of therapy. Dr. Burdea and colleagues documented up to 140% improvement in range of motion of the thumb and up to 118% improvement in the ability to move a single finger.

All patients had had a right-lobe stroke, Dr. Burdea emphasized, noting that rehabilitation in this setting is often difficult because of associated depressive symptoms.

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