Virtual reality as an adjunctive non-pharmacologic analgesic for acute burn pain during medical procedures

Hunter G. Hoffman, Gloria T. Chambers, Walter J. Meyer, Lisa L. Arceneaux, William J. Russell, Eric J. Seibel, Todd L. Richards, Sam R. Sharar, David R. Patterson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

202 Scopus citations

Abstract

Introduction: Excessive pain during medical procedures is a widespread problem but is especially problematic during daily wound care of patients with severe burn injuries. Methods: Burn patients report 35-50% reductions in procedural pain while in a distracting immersive virtual reality, and fMRI brain scans show associated reductions in pain-related brain activity during VR. VR distraction appears to be most effective for patients with the highest pain intensity levels. VR is thought to reduce pain by directing patients' attention into the virtual world, leaving less attention available to process incoming neural signals from pain receptors. Conclusions: We review evidence from clinical and laboratory research studies exploring Virtual Reality analgesia, concentrating primarily on the work ongoing within our group. We briefly describe how VR pain distraction systems have been tailored to the unique needs of burn patients to date, and speculate about how VR systems could be tailored to the needs of other patient populations in the future.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)183-191
Number of pages9
JournalAnnals of Behavioral Medicine
Volume41
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Analgesia
  • Pain distraction
  • Virtual reality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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