Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico, Via Álvaro del Portillo, Roma, 200, 00128, Italy.
Research Unit of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Universit? Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Álvaro del Portillo, Roma, 21, 00128, Italy.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2023 Nov 2;24(1):859. doi: 10.1186/s12891-023-06861-5.
Virtual Reality (VR) systems have been increasingly used across several medical fields. A crucial preliminary step for developing optimized VR-based applications for rehabilitation purposes is identifying potential interventions to meet the requirements necessary to satisfy end-users' needs. This study aims to assess the acceptability, usability, and appropriateness of a VR physical therapy program executed with Oculus Quest 2 by expert physiotherapists of shoulder musculoskeletal rehabilitation.
Eleven physiotherapists were enrolled to test a VR program for shoulder musculoskeletal rehabilitation. At the end of each session, physiotherapists completed three questionnaires about the acceptability, usability, and appropriateness of the VR system and application, investigating aspects such as wearability, safety, stability, ease of control, comfort, size, utility, playability, and use mode.
The acceptability questionnaire revealed that all the physiotherapists found the VR system easy to wear and control, very confident, and safe. The usability questionnaire showed that most physiotherapists (73%) found the VR application entertaining, although only 45% said the system could be used independently by patients without the support of a therapist. Many physiotherapists found the use of the VR application appropriate for patients with rotator cuff tears treated conservatively (63.6%) or surgically (54.5%), for patients with shoulder osteoarthritis treated conservatively (72.7%), for patients with shoulder osteoarthritis after surgical treatment (63.6%). 91% of physiotherapists think it would be best for patients to use the VR system under the supervision of a therapist and not independently in a home setting.
The use of VR in orthopaedic rehabilitation is encouraging, although further efforts are needed to increase the independent use of patients without the supervision of a physiotherapist. Moreover, future studies should strive to ensure the clinical effectiveness of VR rehabilitation in reaching therapeutic goal settings.
虚拟现实（VR）系统已在多个医学领域得到广泛应用。为了开发用于康复目的的优化 VR 应用，一个关键的初步步骤是确定潜在的干预措施，以满足满足最终用户需求所需的要求。本研究旨在评估由肩部肌肉骨骼康复专家使用 Oculus Quest 2 执行的 VR 物理治疗计划的可接受性、可用性和适宜性。
招募了 11 名物理治疗师来测试肩部肌肉骨骼康复的 VR 程序。在每次会话结束时，物理治疗师完成了三份关于 VR 系统和应用的可接受性、可用性和适宜性的问卷，调查了可穿戴性、安全性、稳定性、控制易用性、舒适性、尺寸、实用性、可玩性和使用模式等方面。
可接受性问卷显示，所有物理治疗师都发现 VR 系统易于佩戴和控制，非常有信心，而且安全。可用性问卷显示，大多数物理治疗师（73%）认为 VR 应用具有娱乐性，尽管只有 45%的人表示患者无需治疗师的支持即可独立使用该系统。许多物理治疗师发现 VR 应用程序适用于保守治疗（63.6%）或手术治疗（54.5%）的肩袖撕裂患者、保守治疗（72.7%）的肩关节炎患者、手术治疗后的肩关节炎患者（63.6%）。91%的物理治疗师认为患者最好在治疗师的监督下使用 VR 系统，而不是在家中独立使用。
VR 在矫形康复中的应用令人鼓舞，尽管需要进一步努力增加患者在没有物理治疗师监督下的独立使用。此外，未来的研究应努力确保 VR 康复在达到治疗目标设定方面的临床效果。
