"I Dreamed of My Hands and Arms Moving Again": A Case Series Investigating the Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality on Phantom Limb Pain Alleviation.

ABSTRACT: Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a type of chronic pain that follows limb amputation, brachial plexus avulsion injury, or spinal cord injury. Treating PLP is a well-known challenge. Currently, virtual reality (VR) interventions are attracting increasing attention because they show promising analgesic effects. However, most previous studies of VR interventions were conducted with a limited number of patients in a single trial. Few studies explored questions such as how multiple VR sessions might affect pain over time, or if a patient's ability to move their phantom limb may affect their PLP. Here we recruited five PLP patients to practice two motor tasks for multiple VR sessions over 6 weeks. In VR, patients "inhabit" a virtual body or avatar, and the movements of their intact limbs are mirrored

SUBMITTER: Tong X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7477390 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature