Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality Based Hand Rehabilitation Games for Improving Hand Motor Functions in Subacute Stroke Patients

• Published in: IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering Vol. 32; p. 1
• Main Authors: Amin, Faisal, Waris, Asim, Syed, Sania, Amjad, Imran, Umar, Muhammad, Iqbal, Javaid, Gilani, Syed Omer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.01.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Clinical outcome measures; Cognitive; Computer applications; Effectiveness; Feedback, Sensory; Female; Games; Hand; Hand (anatomy); Human motion; Humans; Immersive virtual reality; Male; Middle Aged; Motors; Quality of life; Recovery of Function; Rehabilitation; Stroke; Stroke (medical condition); Stroke - complications; Stroke - physiopathology; Stroke rehabilitation; Stroke Rehabilitation - instrumentation; Stroke Rehabilitation - methods; Task analysis; Training; Treatment Outcome; Video Games; Virtual Reality; Visual feedback; Visual perception; Visualization
• ISSN: 1534-4320; 1558-0210; 1558-0210
• DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2024.3405852

Stroke rehabilitation faces challenges in attaining enduring improvements in hand motor function and is frequently constrained by interventional limitations. This research aims to present an innovative approach to the integration of cognitive engagement within visual feedback incorporated into fully immersive virtual reality (VR) based games to achieve enduring improvements. These innovative aspects of interaction provide more functional advantages beyond motivation to efficiently execute repeatedly hand motor tasks. The effectiveness of virtual reality games incorporated with innovative aspects has been investigated for improvements in hand motor functions. A randomized controlled trial was conducted, a total of (n=56) subacute stroke patients were assessed for eligibility and (n=52) patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. (n=26) patients were assigned to the experimental group and (n=26) patients were assigned to the control group. VR intervention involves four VR based games, developed based on hand movements including flexion/extension, close/open, supination/pronation and pinch. All patients got therapy of 24 sessions, lasting 4 days/week for a total of 6 weeks. Five clinical outcome measures were Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity, Action Research Arm Test, Box and Block Test, Modified Barthel Index, and Stroke-Specific Quality of Life were assessed to evaluate patients' performance. Results revealed that after therapy there was significant improvement between the groups (p<0.05) and within groups (p<0.05) in all assessment weeks in all clinical outcome measures however, improvement was observed significantly greater in the experimental group due to fully immersive VR-based games. Results indicated that cognitive engagement within visual feedback incorporated in VR-based hand games effectively improved hand motor functions.