VR RAP
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A randomised controlled pilot study of the effectiveness of a Virtual Reality headset on post-operative Relaxation, Anxiety and Pain in patients undergoing elective laparoscopic colorectal surgery.
IRAS ID
338543
Contact name
Sharon Turney
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
East Kent Hospitals Universities Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 18 days
Research summary
Virtual reality headsets (like those used in gaming) allow users to feel immersed in an artificial 3 dimensional environment. The user is able to look around within the environment and interact with it.
Virtual reality has been used extensively in video games and also in training eg in flight simulators used to train pilots.
There is now a growing use of VR in a clinical setting as virtual reality environments have been designed to help users relax and reduce anxiety or distract and reduce pain. Trials have shown that these can work in many situations including helping relax staff who are working in highly stressful situations, or to distract and help reduce pain in patients following injuries or during minor operations.
The relaxation environments use pictures and sounds to create calm environments and can guide users in breathing exercises which help calm and relax.
This study is to investigate whether it will be possible to do a study using a VR headset with a relaxation experience, in the days following abdominal surgery that leads to a reduction in anxiety and pain.
Two groups of patients will be studied, one group will use the head set twice a day for up to 5 days and the other will not. They will record their pain and anxiety on a scale of 1 to 10 every day. The amount of pain reducing medicines that they need will also be recorded. The patients will be randomly divided into the 2 groups, they will not get to choose.
The researchers will see whether patients are happy to use the headsets following surgery and at the end of the study, the pain and anxiety scores for the group which used the VR headset will be compared with the scores for the group that didn’t.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EM/0231
Date of REC Opinion
18 Nov 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion