Development of virtual reality proprioceptive rehabilitation system for stroke patients

• Published in: Computer methods and programs in biomedicine Vol. 113; no. 1; pp. 258 - 265
• Main Authors: Cho, Sangwoo, Ku, Jeonghun, Cho, Yun Kyung, Kim, In Young, Kang, Youn Joo, Jang, Dong Pyo, Kim, Sun I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.01.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Arm - physiology; Biofeedback, Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Computer based rehabilitation; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Exact sciences and technology; Female; Humans; Internal Medicine; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neurology; Other; Proprioception; Proprioception feedback; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Software; Stroke; Stroke - physiopathology; Stroke Rehabilitation; Technology. Biomaterials. Equipments. Material. Instrumentation; upper-extremity limb; User-Computer Interface; Vascular diseases and vascular malformations of the nervous system; Virtual Reality; Stroke; Proprioception feedback; upper-extremity limb; Virtual Reality; Computer based rehabilitation; Probabilistic approach; Error estimation; Proprioception; Ergotherapy; Blocking; Feedback regulation; Visual servoing; Click; Physical rehabilitation; Reeducation; Behavioral analysis; Virtual reality; Upper limb; Rehabilitation; Cerebrovascular disease
• ISSN: 0169-2607; 1872-7565; 1872-7565
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2013.09.006

In this study, the virtual reality (VR) proprioception rehabilitation system was developed for stroke patients to use proprioception feedback in upper limb rehabilitation by blocking visual feedback. To evaluate its therapeutic effect, 10 stroke patients (onset>3 month) trained proprioception feedback rehabilitation for one week and visual feedback rehabilitation for another week in random order. Proprioception functions were checked before, a week after, and at the end of training. The results show the click count, error distance and total error distance among proprioception evaluation factors were significantly reduced after proprioception feedback training compared to visual feedback training (respectively, p=0.005, p=0.001, and p=0.007). In addition, subjects were significantly improved in conventional behavioral tests after training. In conclusion, we showed the effectiveness and possible use of the VR to recover the proprioception of stroke patients.