Objective To explore the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) technology combined with reduction plasty of the femoral head in the treatment of coxa plana and evaluate its effectiveness. Methods Three patients with coxa plana were selected as the research objects between October 2018 and October 2020, all of them were male, aged 15-24 years. Preoperative surgical planning was performed using VR technology; 256 rows of CT data of hip joint were imported into software to generate three-dimensional (3D) imaging, simulate the surgical process, and determine the matching relationship between the femoral head and acetabulum. According to the preoperative planning, reduction plasty of the femoral head under surgical dislocation, relative lengthening of the femoral neck, and periacetabular osteotomy were performed. The reduction of osteotomy size of femoral head and rotation angle of acetabulum were confirmed by C-arm fluoroscopy. The healing of the osteotomy were assessed by radiological examination after operation. The Harris score of hip function and visual analogue scale (VAS) score were recorded before and after operation. The femoral head roundness index, center-edge (CE) angle, and femoral head coverage were measured by X-ray films. ResultsThree operations were completed successfully, and the operation time was 460, 450, and 435 minutes, and the intraoperative blood loss was 733, 716, and 829 mL, respectively. All patients were infused with 3 U suspension oligoleucocyte and 300 mL frozen virus inactivated plasma after operation. No postoperative complication occurred, such as infection and deep vein thrombosis. Three patients were followed up 25, 30, and 15 months, respectively. CT showed good healing of the osteotomy at 3 months after operation. The VAS score and Harris score at 12 months after operation and at last follow-up, as well as the femoral head rounding index, hip CE angle, and femoral head coverage at 12 months after operation significantly improved when compared with those before operation; the hip function was evaluated by the Harris score at 12 months after operation, and all three patients were good. ConclusionVR technology combined with reduction plasty of the femoral head can achieve satisfactory short-term effectiveness in the treatment of coxa plana.
Objective To explore the application effect of virtual reality (VR) technology in low vision teaching for optometry students. Methods Undergraduate students majoring in optometry at West China School of Medicine of Sichuan University were selected as the research subjects. The students enrolled in 2020 adopted the traditional lecture-based learning (LBL) teaching mode (LBL teaching group), while the students enrolled in 2021 adopted the VR teaching mode (VR teaching group). Both groups of students studied the content of the same chapter on low vision, completed in-class tests after learning, and completed a questionnaire survey. Results There were 28 students in the VR teaching group and 30 students in the LBL teaching group. There was no statistically significant difference in age or gender composition between the two groups of students (P>0.05). The in-class test scores of students in the VR teaching group were higher than those in the LBL teaching group (86.43±6.10 vs. 78.10±7.69, P<0.05). Except for “subjective discomfort with this teaching mode”, the differences in other evaluation results between the two groups were statistically significant (P<0.05). VR teaching group students generally believed that applying VR technology to low vision teaching helped understand the visual experience and daily life status of low vision patients, improved learning efficiency and hands-on ability, reduced learning burden, and hoped to use this teaching mode routinely in other subject teaching. All students in the VR teaching group believed that this teaching mode was interesting, highly innovative, and enhanced teacher-student interaction.Conclusions Applying VR technology to low vision teaching can enable students to personally experience the impact of various diseases on patients’ visual function and daily life. This teaching method not only optimizes and improves teaching effectiveness, but also has a high acceptance rate among students, which is worth further promoting in future optometry teaching.
Objective To investigate the effect of virtual reality (VR) sham feeding on gastrointestinal function in elderly patients with hip fracture. Methods Elderly patients with hip fracture admitted to Trauma Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University between June and December 2024 who met the case selection criteria were selected. Patients who were willing to complete the postoperative VR operation were assigned to the experimental group (VR group), and the other patients were assigned to the control group by 1∶1 manual interval matching according to sex, age (±5 years), and body mass index (±2 kg/m2). The control group received fasting and nutrition management strategy during perioperative period of accelerated rehabilitation. In the VR group, VR sham feeding intervention was performed on the basis of the control group. The time of first postoperative exhaust and defecation, postoperative gastrointestinal symptoms, postoperative nutrition (hemoglobin, serum albumin) and inflammatory indicators (white blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6), postoperative appetite and postoperative complications (bleeding, fever, delirium, aspiration, vertigo) were compared between the two groups. Results A total of 70 patients were enrolled, with 35 in each group. There were statistically significant differences (P<0.05) between the VR group and the control group in the time of postoperative first exhaust [(9.17±4.81) vs. (13.66±5.97) h], time of postoperative first defecation [(49.00±28.61) vs. (66.83±29.93) h], degree of abdominal distension 3 d after surgery (grade 0/1/2: 26/7/2 vs. 16/12/7 cases), appetite score 1 d after surgery (62.86±12.85 vs. 54.71±11.50), appetite score 3 d after surgery (76.29±9.95 vs. 62.43±8.86), albumin level 3 d after surgery [(33.18±3.41) vs. (31.40±3.07) g/L], and hospitalization days [(7.97±1.38) vs. (9.06±2.43) d], while there was no statistically significant difference in other indicators (P>0.05). Conclusions The incidence of postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction is high in elderly patients with hip fracture. VR sham feeding can promote the early recovery of gastrointestinal function, alleviate postoperative abdominal distension, significantly improve postoperative appetite, and increase albumin level after surgery.
Gynecology and obstetrics teaching has strong practicality. Because of the lack of practice on patients who has strong self-protection consciousness and the likely injury due to invasive operation, students and young doctors can’t have many opportunities to make actual clinical operation which limits their abilities of clinical skills. Based on this, the virtual reality medical education in the teaching of obstetrics and gynecology develops fast these days because of its necessity, ethicality, and economical effect, which might be popularized. It plays a very important role in cultivating young doctors’ manipulative ability, training "three basics and three strictness", mastering abstract knowledge, and quantitative assessing effect of clinical teaching.
Electronic skin has shown great application potential in many fields such as healthcare monitoring and human-machine interaction due to their excellent sensing performance, mechanical properties and biocompatibility. This paper starts from the materials selection and structures design of electronic skin, and summarizes their different applications in the field of healthcare equipment, especially current development status of wearable sensors with different functions, as well as the application of electronic skin in virtual reality. The challenges of electronic skin in the field of wearable devices and healthcare, as well as our corresponding strategies, are discussed to provide a reference for further advancing the research of electronic skin.
Stroke is an acute cerebrovascular disease in which sudden interruption of blood supply to the brain or rupture of cerebral blood vessels cause damage to brain cells and consequently impair the patient's motor and cognitive abilities. A novel rehabilitation training model integrating brain-computer interface (BCI) and virtual reality (VR) not only promotes the functional activation of brain networks, but also provides immersive and interesting contextual feedback for patients. In this paper, we designed a hand rehabilitation training system integrating multi-sensory stimulation feedback, BCI and VR, which guides patients' motor imaginations through the tasks of the virtual scene, acquires patients' motor intentions, and then carries out human-computer interactions under the virtual scene. At the same time, haptic feedback is incorporated to further increase the patients' proprioceptive sensations, so as to realize the hand function rehabilitation training based on the multi-sensory stimulation feedback of vision, hearing, and haptic senses. In this study, we compared and analyzed the differences in power spectral density of different frequency bands within the EEG signal data before and after the incorporation of haptic feedback, and found that the motor brain area was significantly activated after the incorporation of haptic feedback, and the power spectral density of the motor brain area was significantly increased in the high gamma frequency band. The results of this study indicate that the rehabilitation training of patients with the VR-BCI hand function enhancement rehabilitation system incorporating multi-sensory stimulation can accelerate the two-way facilitation of sensory and motor conduction pathways, thus accelerating the rehabilitation process.
Emotion recognition refers to the process of determining and identifying an individual's current emotional state by analyzing various signals such as voice, facial expressions, and physiological indicators etc. Using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and virtual reality (VR) technology for emotion recognition research helps to better understand human emotional changes, enabling applications in areas such as psychological therapy, education, and training to enhance people’s quality of life. However, there is a lack of comprehensive review literature summarizing the combined researches of EEG signals and VR environments for emotion recognition. Therefore, this paper summarizes and synthesizes relevant research from the past five years. Firstly, it introduces the relevant theories of VR and EEG signal emotion recognition. Secondly, it focuses on the analysis of emotion induction, feature extraction, and classification methods in emotion recognition using EEG signals within VR environments. The article concludes by summarizing the research’s application directions and providing an outlook on future development trends, aiming to serve as a reference for researchers in related fields.
Stroke can lead to dysfunction of movement, sensation, cognition and other functions, eventually affect the quality of life of patients. Many patients suffer from severe and persistent upper limb dysfunction. Upper limb rehabilitation has always been a focus in clinical practice and scientific research of rehabilitation field. As an emerging technology, virtual reality (VR) provides simulated environments for patients to enhance their participation and experience, and has been more and more widely used in stroke rehabilitation. This paper reviews the application and research progress of VR in upper limb rehabilitation after stroke, discusses the current evidences based on both the independent application of VR and the application of VR combined with other rehabilitation interventions, and indicates that VR can play a positive role in promoting the upper limb strength and coordination of stroke patients and enhancing their motivation to participant in rehabilitation. In the future, more high-quality studies are needed to further confirm the efficacy and optimal parameter settings.
ObjectiveTo research the value of virtual reality (VR) technology in the preoperative planning of transtrochanteric curved varus osteotomy for avascular necrosis of the femoral head (ANFH) in adults.MethodsBetween June 2018 and November 2018, 7 patients (11 hips) with ANFH, who were treated with transtrochanteric curved varus osteotomy, were enrolled in the study. There were 4 males (7 hips) and 3 females (4 hips) with an average age of 31.9 years (range, 14-46 years). Among them, 3 patients were unilateral ANFH and 4 patients were bilateral ANFH. There was 1 patient (1 hip) of traumatic ANFH, 2 patients (4 hips) of alcohol-induced ANFH, 2 patients (3 hips) of hormonal ANFH, and 2 patients (3 hips) of idiopathic ANFH. All hips were Association Research Circulation Osseous (ARCO) stage Ⅲ. There were 5 hips for Japanese Investigation Committee (JIC) type C1 and 6 hips for type C2. There were 5 hips for China-Japan Friendship Hospital (CJFH) type L1,1 for type L2, and 5 for type L3. The disease duration ranged from 5 to 12 months (mean, 8 months). Preoperative Harris score was 53.91±7.66. The neck-shaft angle ranged from 128 to 143° (mean, 133.9°). VR technology was adopted for the preoperative planning. CT data were imported into the software to construct the morphology of necrotic area, and the transrtrochanteric varus osteotomy was simulated. The varus angle was designed according to the integrity rate of femoral head. The planned varus angle was 6 to 16° (mean, 9.7°). The transtrochanteric curved varus osteotomy was performed according to the preoperative planning, and the varus angle and loading area were confirmed under fluoroscopy. If the planned varus angle was too small, it would continue to increase under the fluoroscopy until a satisfactory varus angle. Postoperative changes of the neck-shaft angle were calculated and compared with the preoperative planned varus angle (error). The hip function was assessed by using the Harris score.ResultsAll incisions healed by first intention. All patients were followed up 6-11 months with an average of 8 months. The X-ray film at 2 days after operation showed that the neck-shaft angle was 112-135° (mean, 123.4°). The difference of the neck-shaft angle between pre- and post-operation was 6-16° (mean, 11.0°). Among them, the difference of the neck-shaft angle was consistent with planned varus angle in 5 hips, while the error of the remaining 6 hips was 1-4°. There was 1 patient (1 hip) of osteotomy nonunion at 4 months after operation, 1 patient (1 hip) of proximal femur fracture at 2 months after operation. The rest 5 patients (9 hips) obtained union at the osteotomy. At last follow-up, the Harris score was 82.18±16.35, showing significant difference when compared with preoperative score (t=–5.195, P=0.000).ConclusionVR technology is a brand-new preoperative planning method for transtrochanteric curved varus osteotomy in treating ANFH.
Objective To study the application of virtual reality bronchoscopy stimulation in novice trainees. Methods Four novice bronchoscopists entered the training programby using a VR bronchoscopy in the clinical skill center. After the program, the dexterity, speed, and accuracy of all the four doctors were tested using the virtual simulation models. Results were compared to four skilled physicians as control group who had performed at least 50 bronchoscopies. Before-training and after-training test scores were compared using paired t tests. For comparisons between after-training novice and skilled physician scores, unpaired twosample t tests were used. Results All of the four trainees finished the training program. The novices significantly improved their dexterity, speed and accuracy. The percentage of observed segments increased from ( 74. 0 ±5. 1) % to ( 89. 3 ±4. 0) % . The number of contacts with the bronchial wall decreased from 87. 5 ±13. 2 to 30. 5 ±9. 3, and total time spent shortened from ( 700. 8 ±56. 6) s to ( 607. 0 ±17. 8) s. There were no statistically significant differences between novice accuracy ( the percentage of observed segments) after training and skilled physician accuracy [ ( 89. 3 ±4. 0) % vs ( 91. 3 ±3. 0) % , P = 0. 456] . Conclusion Practice using a virtual bronchoscopy simulator help novice trainees to attain a level of skill at performing diagnostic bronchoscopy, and it might play an important role in the training of chest physicians.
