Non-immersive virtual reality therapy in post-stroke patients a quick review

Abstract

Worldwide stroke is a major cause of long-term disability. As new technologies emerged in neurorehabilitation, from robotic to virtual reality therapies, we aimed to highlight the novelty and research methodology in the use of non-immersive virtual reality in the physical rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. A quick literature review was performed by querying Web of Science database, using ‘non-immersive’, ‘virtual reality’ and ‘stroke’ as keywords. Twenty-seven papers resulted from the query, after refining the results by the last five years and open access papers resulted in twelve articles selected for analysis. The inclusion criteria for the review were: rehabilitation technology and post-stroke patients. The exclusion criteria were linked with commercial virtual reality technology, speech or psychological interventions, and review papers. All the abstracts were assessed regarding the inclusion and exclusion criteria and seven papers were included in the review. Although virtual reality technology has developed and expanded in recent years, its application in rehabilitation medicine still requires further research, due to the variety of the software and hardware used and the necessary clinical trials. A more concise framework for the protocol of use of non-immersive virtual technologies used in rehabilitation is needed.