Instituto Polibienestar, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
PLoS One. 2024 Aug 12;19(8):e0307408. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307408. eCollection 2024.
Stroke is the second leading cause of death in Europe. In the case of stroke survival (almost 70%), only 25% of patients recover completely, while the remaining 75% will undergo a rehabilitation phase that varying from months to years. The primary outcomes of a stroke involve motor impairment in the upper limbs, resulting in a partial or complete inability to move the limb on the right or left side, depending on the affected hemisphere. Furthermore, the motor deficit distorts the proprioception of the body and the embodiment ability of the injured limb. This could be rehabilitated through the paradigm of body illusion that modulates the motor rehabilitation. The present protocol aims to investigate the effectiveness of a Virtual Reality system for sensorimotor and proprioception upper limb deficit compared to a traditional upper limb rehabilitation program.
This study has a randomized and controlled design with control and experimental groups, and 4 measurement times: pre-intervention, immediately after the intervention, and two follow-ups (at 6 and 12 months). The inclusion criteria are: (a) Being 18 to 85 years old, both males and females; (b) Suffering from ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke; (c) The stroke event must have occurred from two to eighteen months before recruitment; (d) Patients must have moderate to severe upper limb motor deficit, and the alteration of sensorimotor and proprioception abilities of the injury upper limb; (e) Patients must understand and sign the written consent for enrolment. The rehabilitation last four weeks with three sessions per week at Bellaria Hospital of Bologna (Italy). The VR protocol uses two types of technology: immersive and non-immersive, and the control group follow the traditional rehabilitation program.
中风是欧洲的第二大致死原因。在中风存活者（近 70%）中，只有 25%的患者能完全康复，而其余 75%的患者将经历数月至数年的康复阶段。中风的主要结果涉及上肢运动障碍，导致右侧或左侧肢体部分或完全无法移动，具体取决于受影响的大脑半球。此外，运动缺陷会扭曲身体的本体感觉和受伤肢体的体现能力。这可以通过调节运动康复的身体错觉范式来进行康复。本方案旨在研究虚拟现实系统对上肢感觉运动和本体感觉缺陷的康复效果与传统上肢康复方案相比的效果。
本研究采用随机对照设计，分为对照组和实验组，有 4 次测量时间：干预前、干预后即刻、两次随访（6 个月和 12 个月）。纳入标准为：（a）年龄 18 至 85 岁，男女均可；（b）患有缺血性或出血性中风；（c）中风事件必须发生在招募前 2 至 18 个月；（d）患者必须有中等到严重的上肢运动缺陷，以及损伤上肢的感觉运动和本体感觉能力的改变；（e）患者必须理解并签署同意书。康复持续四周，每周三次，在博洛尼亚贝拉里亚医院（意大利）进行。VR 方案使用两种技术：沉浸式和非沉浸式，对照组则遵循传统康复方案。
