The effectiveness of virtual reality pain control with multiple treatmentsof longer durations: A case study

Immersive virtual reality (VR) has proved to be potentially valuable as a p ain control technique for patients with severe bums undergoing wound care a nd physical therapy. Recent studies have shown that single, 3-min visits to a virtual world can dramatically reduce the amount of pain experienced dur ing wound care, and the illusion of going inside the computer-generated wor ld helps make VR analgesia unusually effective. This case study explored wh ether VR continues to reduce pain when the duration and frequency of VR tre atments are increased to more practical levels. A patient with deep flash b ums covering 42% of his body spent varying amounts of time performing physi cal therapy with and without virtual reality. Five subjective pain ratings for each treatment condition served as the dependent measures. The magnitud e of pain reduction with VR, and the patient's illusion of "going into" the virtual world did not diminish with repeated administration and longer tre atment durations. Practical implications are discussed. The results of this study may be examined in more detail at www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/b urn/.