TY - JOUR
T1 - Virtual reality and its use in post-operative pain following laparoscopy
T2 - a feasibility study
AU - Payne, Olivia
AU - Smith, Vinayak
AU - Rolnik, Daniel L.
AU - Davies-Tuck, Miranda
AU - Warty, Ritesh
AU - Seo, Densearn
AU - Wetherell, Lima
AU - Murday, Hamsaveni Kalina
AU - Nair, Amrish
AU - Kaur, Rashvinder
AU - Vollenhoven, Beverley
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was investigator initiated and was funded and supported otherwise by Monash University and Monash Health. Additional support was provided by Biorithm Pte. Ltd. and Alo VR in the form of virtual reality headsets and virtual reality content. The study received no other sources of funding.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Dr. Roni Ratner, Dr. Cameron Sharp, Dr. Mark Adams, Carol Jackson, and the staff at Moorabbin Hospital for their help with the trial. Additionally, the authors would like to thank Biorithm Pte. Ltd and ALO VR (Singapore) for the VR headsets and content.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Pain following laparoscopic surgery remains a neglected healthcare issue. Virtual reality-mediated therapy’s (VRT) analgesic potential could address this. However, its effect in this setting remains unexplored. We aimed to establish the feasibility and safety of VRT as an adjunct analgesic following gynaecological laparoscopy and explore differences between active distraction and passive meditation content. 35 women were enrolled into an open crossover pilot and randomised to either intervention group 1 (active then passive content) or intervention group 2 (passive then active content) following surgery. VRT was administered in two 10-min segments with a 10-min washout period in between. Pain scores, opioid requirements and side effects were recorded before and after each segment whilst questionnaires evaluated acceptability. We observed a significant reduction in pain over time for the entire study population (F = 8.63, p < 0.0005) but no differences between intervention groups, in contrast to many studies demonstrating an increase in pain during this time. During segment one, intervention group 1 (n = 18) were administered significantly less opioid than intervention group 2 (n = 17) [0.0 (0.0–7.5) vs. 3.0(0.0–10.0), p = 0.04]. Intervention group 1 rated the VRT experience significantly higher than intervention group 2 (7.97 vs. 6.62. p = 0.017). 97.1% (n = 34) would recommend VRT to a friend and use it as the standard-of-care in future procedures. These results demonstrate that post-operative VRT is feasible and safe. However, adequately powered studies are needed to appropriately determine its efficacy.
AB - Pain following laparoscopic surgery remains a neglected healthcare issue. Virtual reality-mediated therapy’s (VRT) analgesic potential could address this. However, its effect in this setting remains unexplored. We aimed to establish the feasibility and safety of VRT as an adjunct analgesic following gynaecological laparoscopy and explore differences between active distraction and passive meditation content. 35 women were enrolled into an open crossover pilot and randomised to either intervention group 1 (active then passive content) or intervention group 2 (passive then active content) following surgery. VRT was administered in two 10-min segments with a 10-min washout period in between. Pain scores, opioid requirements and side effects were recorded before and after each segment whilst questionnaires evaluated acceptability. We observed a significant reduction in pain over time for the entire study population (F = 8.63, p < 0.0005) but no differences between intervention groups, in contrast to many studies demonstrating an increase in pain during this time. During segment one, intervention group 1 (n = 18) were administered significantly less opioid than intervention group 2 (n = 17) [0.0 (0.0–7.5) vs. 3.0(0.0–10.0), p = 0.04]. Intervention group 1 rated the VRT experience significantly higher than intervention group 2 (7.97 vs. 6.62. p = 0.017). 97.1% (n = 34) would recommend VRT to a friend and use it as the standard-of-care in future procedures. These results demonstrate that post-operative VRT is feasible and safe. However, adequately powered studies are needed to appropriately determine its efficacy.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135194617&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-022-17183-2
DO - 10.1038/s41598-022-17183-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 35907935
AN - SCOPUS:85135194617
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 12
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 13137
ER -