Virtual reality reduces anxiety among caregivers of children having surgery, study finds

Digital actuality (VR) could also be an efficient and dependable instrument to alleviate the anxiousness skilled by most dad and mom or caregivers when their little one undergoes surgical procedure, in accordance with analysis offered on the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2023 annual meeting.

“When a baby has a medical procedure, it’s usually emotionally unsettling for not simply the affected person, however the whole household,” stated Thomas J. Caruso, M.D., Ph.D., FASA, senior writer of the research and medical professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and ache medication at Stanford College, California.

“By offering family-centered care, we intention to deal with not simply the affected person, but in addition caregivers, who expertise fairly a bit of tension earlier than, throughout and after surgical procedure when a cherished one is present process a process. Our findings demonstrated a big discount in anxiousness when utilizing VR, in comparison with our customary of care.”

Roughly 74% of caregivers expertise anxiousness previous to their kid’s surgical process. Regardless of this, interventions to deal with caregiver anxiousness have solely been applied in a number of hospitals, the authors notice.

Caregiver anxiousness may exacerbate the misery skilled by the kid earlier than surgical procedure. Elevated little one anxiousness contributes to uncooperative anesthetic inductions, extended restoration, elevated postoperative ache and delirium, and decreased affected person satisfaction.

The research included 26 caregivers of youngsters present process noninvasive or surgical procedures. The VR intervention concerned guided, mindfulness meditation utilizing a commercially out there VR headset. The mindfulness software that caregivers skilled was developed by the Stanford Chariot Program, a medical and translational analysis program that develops novel makes use of for immersive technologies in pediatric well being care. Pc-generated imagery of a nature-based panorama was projected to advertise leisure via each visible and auditory prompts.

Fifty-four p.c of the caregivers obtained the VR intervention, whereas the 46% who didn’t have been requested to attend and relaxation within the ready space with entry to refreshments, which is taken into account the hospital’s “customary of care.”

Contributors within the VR group have been instructed to make use of the VR intervention initially of their kid’s process for six minutes. Caregivers’ anxiousness ranges have been evaluated utilizing a number of self-reported surveys initially of their kid’s process and instantly after the intervention. To evaluate satisfaction with the intervention, researchers requested the VR group to finish a quick, four-question satisfaction survey.

Previous to receiving the VR intervention, the common anxiousness stage for caregivers within the VR group was 56.5, whereas the common for the usual of care group was 50.3 on a visible analog scale measuring diploma of tension from 0–100.

After receiving the VR intervention, the common anxiousness stage for caregivers within the VR group dropped to 33.1, whereas the common for the usual of care group remained comparatively the identical at 51.4. Of the 14 caregivers who accomplished the VR satisfaction survey, 12 of them reported both being glad or strongly glad (i.e., a rating of 4 or above on a 5-point scale) throughout all 4 satisfaction domains.

“Immersive applied sciences, akin to virtual reality, supply new, non-pharmacologic remedy choices for anxiousness reduction,” stated Dr. Caruso. “Given the reducing prices of VR and its business availability, the outcomes of this research recommend that hospitals in search of to offer family-centered care might take into account VR as an efficient, anxiety-relieving possibility for caregivers.”

Supplied by
American Society of Anesthesiologists