The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 36 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Virtual reality as an adjunctive pain control during burn wound care in adolescent patients
Abstract
For daily burn wound care procedures, opioid analgesics alone are often inadequate. Since most burn patients experience severe to excruciating pain during wound care, analgesics that can be used in addition to opioids are needed. This case report provides the first evidence that entering an immersive virtual environment can serve as a powerful adjunctive, nonpharmacologic analgesic. Two patients received virtual reality (VR) to distract them from high levels of pain during wound care. The first was a 16-year-old male with a deep flash burn on his right leg requiring surgery and staple placement. On two occasions, the patient spent some of his wound care in VR, and some playing a video game. On a 100 mm scale, he provided sensory and affective pain ratings, anxiety and subjective estimates of time spent thinking about his pain during the procedure. For the first session of wound care, these scores decreased 80 mm, 80 mm, 58 mm, and 93 mm, respectively, during VR treatment compared with the video game control condition. For the second session involving staple removal, scores also decreased. The second patient was a 17-year-old male with 33.5% total body surface area deep flash burns on his face, neck, back, arms, hands and legs. He had difficulty tolerating wound care pain with traditional opioids alone and showed dramatic drops in pain ratings during VR compared to the video game (e.g. a 47 mm drop in pain intensity during wound care). We contend that VR is a uniquely attention-capturing medium capable of maximizing the amount of attention drawn away from the 'real world', allowing patients to tolerate painful procedures. These preliminary results suggest that immersive VR merits more attention as a potentially viable form of treatment for acute pain.
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“VR is so attention grabbing that it is being used to distract severe burn patients from their pain during severe burn wound cleaning, and burn patients report large reductions in the amount of time they spend thinking about their pain during painful medical procedures [22–25].”
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Self-citationGrenzen von „Serious Games for Health“
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Virtual and Augmented Reality, Phantom Experience, and Prosthetics
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“(2000) proposed immersive VR as a means for distracting patients from painful medical procedures, such that when the brain is engaged in complex processes, it leaves fewer resources available for attending to nociceptive input (Hoffman et al., 2000).”
BackgroundVirtual reality reduces anxiety and pain in acute hospital palliative care: service evaluation
Burridge, N., Sillence, A., Teape, L., Clark, B., Bruce, E., Armoogum, J., Leloch, D., Spathis, A., & Etkind, S. N. (2023) · BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care · doi:10.1136/spcare-2023-004572 · Cited by 7
Slifer, K. J. (2013) · Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) · Cited by 7
A Case Study: Chronic Pain Patients’ Preferences for Virtual Reality Games for Pain Distraction
Tong, X., Jin, W., Cruz, K., Gromala, D., Garret, B., & Taverner, T. (2018) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-91584-5_1 · Cited by 7
Digital Therapeutics in the Management of Chronic Pain
Rogozinski, B., Greenleaf, W., Sackman, J., & Cahana, A. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-95369-4_30 · Cited by 7
van der Veen, S. M., Stamenkovic, A., Applegate, M. E., Leitkam, S. T., France, C. R., & Thomas, J. S. (2020) · JMIR Serious Games · doi:10.2196/18888 · Cited by 7
“The different methods used to present visual scenes can affect how the virtual environment is perceived and thus can influence not only motor behavior [8] but pain responses as well [10].”
MethodBrady, N., Lewis, J., McCreesh, K. M., Dejaco, B., & McVeigh, J. G. (2022) · HRB Open Research · doi:10.12688/hrbopenres.13239.2 · Cited by 7
“These include distraction 31 , manipulation of somatosensory input and hence perception 32 anxiety management 33 and graded exposure 34 .”
Agent-Based Monitoring of Functional Rehabilitation Using Video Games
Smith, S., Talaei‐Khoei, A., Ray, M., & RAY, P. K. (2010) · Studies in computational intelligence · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16095-0_7 · Cited by 7
“Distracting video games have also been shown to significantly ameliorate the subjective level of pain experienced by children in pediatric burns units during dressing changes [ 38 ].”
BackgroundVirtual reality simulation for reducing pain in children
Lambert, V., Matthews, A., Hicks, P., Boran, L., & Devane, D. (2013) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd010686 · Cited by 7
Grimmer, K. A., Louw, Q., & Schrikk, A. (2011) · Journal of Pain Research · doi:10.2147/jpr.s21821 · Cited by 7
“Our search for more recent literature identified three further relevant studies 18,19,25 (Table 1).”
Technological Interventions for Pain Management
Suso-Ribera, C., Castilla, D., Martínez-Borba, V., Jaén, I., Botella, C., Baños, R. M., & García-Palacios, A. (2022) · Comprehensive Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-818697-8.00009-1 · Cited by 6
Use of Virtual Reality to Improve the Quality of the Hospital Stay for Patients in Neurosurgery
Vayssière, P., Constanthin, P. E., Baticam, N. S., Herbelin, B., Degremont, C., Blanke, O., Schaller, K., & Bijlenga, P. (2021) · Frontiers in Virtual Reality · doi:10.3389/frvir.2021.736122 · Cited by 6
“Similarly, VR reduces pain and provides positive distraction during routine procedures such as intravenous line placements (Gold et al., 2006) and dental procedures (Hoffman et al., 2001; Furman et al., 2009; Sato et al., 2010).”
BackgroundZiabari, S. P. K., Ofoghi, Z., Rodrigues, E. A., Gromala, D., & Moreno, S. (2022) · Frontiers in Virtual Reality · doi:10.3389/frvir.2021.775764 · Cited by 6
Ciubean, A. D., Popa, T., Ciortea, V. M., Dogaru, G., Ungur, R. A., Borda, I. M., & Irsay, L. (2024) · Balneo and PRM Research Journal · doi:10.12680/balneo.2024.691 · Cited by 6
“[52,53 ]”
Zaki, H. A., Elmelliti, H., Ponappan, B., Abosamak, M. F., Shaban, A., Shaban, A., Elgassim, M. A. M., & Shaban, E. E. (2025) · BMC Emergency Medicine · doi:10.1186/s12873-025-01285-x · Cited by 6
İbek, E., & Çınar, D. (2024) · European Journal of Oncology Nursing · doi:10.1016/j.ejon.2024.102750 · Cited by 6
Optimizing Pain Control and Minimizing Opioid Use in Trauma Patients
Fortune, S., & Frawley, J. (2021) · AACN Advanced Critical Care · doi:10.4037/aacnacc2021519 · Cited by 7
Active Virtual Reality Games Reduce Pain Sensitivity in Young, Healthy Adults
Evans, E. J., Naugle, K. E., Ovispo, A., Kaleth, A. S., Arnold, B. L., & Naugle, K. M. (2021) · Frontiers in Virtual Reality · doi:10.3389/frvir.2021.772293 · Cited by 7
“For example, in a study examining the effects of VR on ischemic pain, participants reported lower pain levels and spent less time thinking about the induced pain while engaging in a VR environment compared to not undergoing a VR stimulus (Hoffman et al., 2003).”
BackgroundVirtual reality hypnosis diminishes experimental cold pain and alters autonomic responses
Terzulli, C., Chauvin, C., Liberti, C. C.-D., Faisan, S., Goffin, L., Gianesini, C., Graff, D., Dufour, A., Laroche, É., Salvat, É., et al. (2023) · Frontiers in Pain Research · doi:10.3389/fpain.2023.1237090 · Cited by 8
Herrero, R., Castilla, D., Vizcaíno, Y., Molinari, G., García‐Palacios, A., & Botella, C. (2013) · Zaguan (University of Zaragoza Repository) · Cited by 6
Attentional Demand of a Virtual Reality-Based Reaching Task in Nondisabled Older Adults
Chen, Y., Chung, Y., Proffitt, R. M., Wade, E., & Winstein, C. J. (2015) · Journal of Motor Learning and Development · doi:10.1123/jmld.2014-0067 · Cited by 6
Metadata
- Authors
- Hoffman, H. G., Doctor, J. N., Patterson, D. R., Carrougher, G. J., & Furness, T. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Patterson, David R.
- Venue
- Pain
- Published
- 2000-03-01
- Volume
- 85
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 305-309
- ISSN
- 0304-3959 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2034120147
- Cited by
- 651
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 30 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 14.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Pain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM42725-07, R01GM042725)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Pediatric Pain Management Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Burn Injury Management and Outcomes
- Keywords
- virtual reality, burn wound care, procedural pain, distraction therapy, non-pharmacological analgesia, adolescents, opioid analgesics, pain intensity, anxiety, video games, staple removal, acute pain management
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Burns, Computer Graphics, Humans, Male, Pain, Pain Measurement, User-Computer Interface, Pain Management
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