1432 - Virtual Reality-based Rehabilitation Therapy for Post-Stroke Recovery of Activities of Daily Living

Friday, February 23, 2024

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT

Presenting Author(s)

MF

Michael Fedorovsky, DO

PGY-1 Resident
Carepoint Health-Bayonne Medical Center
Staten Island, New York, United States

Co-Author(s)

MY

Mohammad Yasin, DO

PGY-2 Resident
Montefiore Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
east meadow, New York, United States
VS

Vasanth Selvam, DO

PGY-1 Resident Physician
St.John's Riverside Hospital
Floral Park, New York, United States
JS

Joseph Seldin, MD

Attending Physicain
Jacobi Medical Center / Einstein
Bronx, New York, United States

Objectives: A stroke can result in sensory, motor, cognitive, or visual impairments, limiting everyday activities. Virtual reality (VR) rehabilitation, a new and well-tolerated method, has demonstrated positive outcomes in stroke recovery with respect to limb hemiparesis, gait, balance, and cognition. This review examines existing research to evaluate the effectiveness of VR-based therapy for improving Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) in post-stroke individuals.

Design: PubMed was used to find and analyze 16 articles that focus on using VR-based therapy to improve ADLs after stroke. Key search words included “virtual reality,” “activities of daily living,” “stroke/cerebrovascular accident,” and “stroke recovery” alone or in combination.

Results: VR applications and games offer repetitive, intensive, and task-specific exercises that incorporate elements of neuroplasticity for ADL recovery. Unlike hospital settings, VR treatment creates an environment conducive to ADL practice. Evaluations of ADLs involve subjective measures (e.g., surveys on daily function) and objective measures (e.g., Functional Independence Measure, Wolf Motor Function Test, Modified Barterls Index). Research indicates that VR-based rehabilitation, used alone or alongside conventional occupational therapy for extended durations, significantly enhances ADLs, especially those involving arm functions like eating, dressing, and grooming, based on both subjective and objective assessments. VR-based treatment can be used in tandem with other methods like mirror therapy or robot-assisted training. VR therapy has also shown promise in improving ADLs in specific post-stroke populations such as those with cognitive impairment or basal ganglia strokes.

Conclusions: VR-based therapy enhances functional gains in limb hemiparesis, gait, balance, cognition, and ADL performance in post-stroke patients. Literature supports significant improvements in ADLs using subjective and objective measures. Physiatrists can effectively integrate VR-based rehabilitation as a complementary approach to conventional therapies, empowering stroke patients to practice and enhance their ADLs, leading to improved overall functional outcomes.