Most burn injury patients undergo painful, repetitive therapeutic processes, such as wound debridement, dressing changes, wound cleaning, limb mobility exercises and therapeutic skin stretching.

The perception of pain associated with burn injuries has been reported as one of the most intense types of pain. This presents an important challenge to both patients and clinical staff.

VR can be a suitable solution for procedural pain management. This is because VR allows the users to experience a computer-simulated reality based on visual cues and enhanced with auditory and, in due course, tactile and olfactory interactions.

In our clinical trial, burn-injured patients reported considerably less pain, anxiety or both compared to 'conventional' dressings sessions, which are typically extremely painful.

The most effective scenarios were those with high degrees of patient presence and engagement. This suggests that "as well as reducing the negative impacts of dressing change on pain, anxiety, and distress, immersive VR can create positive experiences of fun, challenge, and laughter, 'lightening' the experience for all parties."

Testimonials

Patients

"[VR] drags you off, definitely. They are picking off stuff where, say they pick one or two off ... you’d be on it, wouldn’t you, you’re concentrating on the pain all the time, where that does help me, it’s distracting, the whole thing."

"It seemed to go much quicker than I thought. "

"Before VR you were thinking, it hurts, because watching them do it makes it worse."

Nursing staff

"The patient was not in the need of any extra analgesia during, before or after the dressing changes. Normally she would have asked for some."

"The patient was a lot better with the VR on and I did pick quite a lot. Normally he does not allow the staff to do what we want to do because of the pain, whereas with the VR he allowed me to do that."

Grants

Confidence in Concept (CiC) (Medical Research Council). VR distraction from pain during burns dressings at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. August 2016 to December 2017.

Collaborations

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust.