Virtual Reality Rehabilitation for Shoulder Pathologies

Summary

Most rehabilitation protocols require patients to train the affected limbs with high regularity, following repetitive cycles of exercises, in order to recover mobility and strength. Nonetheless, the repetitive nature of these exercises can demotivate patients leading to less intense and committed training, if not ending with a lack of compliance toward the prescribed exercises, ultimately leading to a suboptimal recovery. For this reason, several research groups are investigating solutions to help patients in this process, using robotic support or protocols assisted by virtual reality (VR).

Most of these studies have shown benefits, notably in the field of post-stroke rehabilitation, however numerous types of physical therapies have not been investigated yet. Therefore, the main goal of this study will be to explore if the combination of modern motion-tracking and VR can provide significant functional outcomes for the treatment of the most common upper limb pathologies. The investigators created a set of exergames designed to lead the patients through a gamified version of part of physiotherapy (PT). This modified therapy is expected to offer several benefits to the treatment with respect to a purely conventional therapy: (i) improved patient's motivation and commitment to the exercises; (ii) constant evaluation of the patient's performance, thanks to the use of motion tracking; (iii) session-by-session tuning of exercises difficulty; (iv) clear progress traceability; (v) real-time alerts in case of problematic or compensatory movements; (vi) measurement and evaluation of new metrics of movements quality that were not possible in conventional therapy setups.

To evaluate the feasibility of this project, the investigators would like to test the VR system on a short series of patients during four sessions.

Conditions

• Shoulder Instability
• Frozen Shoulder
• Rotator Cuff Tears

Interventions

DEVICE

Rehabilitation using virtual reality

During the four physiotherapy (PT) sessions (60 min for each session), a set of exercises from the conventional PT is replaced by multiple short sessions of 30 minutes each, where the patient will be equipped by a set of motion trackers mounted on a belt and on a set of straps to be worn around both arms and both forearms. The patient will also hold a controller in each hand and wear a commercial VR headset on his head. Then, thanks to the headset, the patient will be able to experience a set of VR environments, where he or she will be guided through a set of exergames. His/her movements in the real world will be used to move his/her avatar's body in the virtual world, and the exergames will be designed to push him/her to perform the motions required by the therapy in order to go through the games. Various strategies, including a virtual coach will also appear to prevent the patient from doing potentially hazardous movements.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• La Tour Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Alexandre Lädermann, MD · La Tour hospital, Meyrin (1217) Geneva, Switzerland

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-10-28

Primary Completion

2025-06-28

Completion

2025-06-28

Countries

• Switzerland

Study Locations