Rehabilitación mediante terapia de realidad virtual tras un accidente cerebrovascular: una revisión bibliográfica

Abstract

Introduction

Stroke has increased in incidence worldwide. Although its mortality has reduced, it is the disease with the highest percentage of disability. For this reason, it is necessary to find new methods of rehabilitation and recovery from sequalae after a stroke, such as virtual reality (VR) therapy.

Objective

To analyse the effectiveness of VR as a rehabilitation therapy for movement improvement in adults after suffering a stroke.

Method

A literature review was carried out through a systematic search in the PubMed, ScienceDirect and EBSCO databases (Medline Complete, Academic Search Complete, Academic Search Ultimate and E-Journal). A date restriction of the last 5 years and a language restriction in English and Spanish were applied.

Results

A total of 13 studies met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and the objectives of this review. The selected studies compared conventional therapy (CT) with VR therapy, or CT with the combination of CT + VR, and other studies assessed VR effectiveness in isolation.

Conclusions

VR therapy would be effective for improving movement in post-stroke patients, either in isolation or as a complement to conventional therapy. The type of VR most used for stroke rehabilitation is the semi-immersive of second person that is generally applied 6 months after suffering a stroke. Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to determine the efficacy of VR according to the brain region affected.