Small study: Patients using VR goggles need less anesthesia for surgery – IT Pro – News

During a limited study at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, participants who underwent surgery using virtual reality goggles needed less sedation for the surgery and spent less time in the recovery room.

the study, whose results appear in PLOS OneTwo groups of patients, with fifteen patients each, were included. They underwent operations that required partial anaesthesia. Both groups reported the same degree of pain during operations, but the group wearing the VR glasses required less sedation and, perhaps in part because of this, had to spend less time in the recovery room.

After a month, patients also reported a similar degree of satisfaction with the operation. The researchers note that it is a promising result. “Using virtual reality in a similar clinical context could reduce complications from over-sedation in high-risk patients and merits further research.” The study was conducted on a limited basis with 30 people. It is also one medical institution in the United States and of the recruited participants, 32.5 percent were women. Participants were randomly divided into one of two groups.

The headset used came from XRHealth, which provided hardware and software for free, but did not pay for the study. Funding for the research came from the American Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research.