Effect of early virtual reality training on the rehabilitation of stroke patients with hemiplegia

Objective To explore the effect of early virtual reality training in the rehabilitation of stroke patients with hemiplegia. Methods From June 2015 to May 2016, 60 cases of stroke patients from the Department of Rehabilitation of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University were randomly divided into observation group and control group, 30 cases in each group. The patients of control group received routine rehabilitation training program, and patients of the observation group received routine rehabilitation and virtual reality training. The two groups were trained for 6 weeks. The walking function, activities of daily living and mental status of the patient before and after training were evaluated by functional ambulation category scale (FAC) , modified Barthel index (MBI) , hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD) . Results Before training, FAC, MBI and HAD scores had no significant difference between patients of two groups (P>0.05) . After 6 weeks of training, the scores of FAC, MBI and HAD in the two groups were better than those before training (P<0.05) ; After training, except for HAD (D) , the indexes in the observation group were better than those in the control group (P<0.05) . Conclusions Early virtual reality training can effectively improve the walking function and activities of daily living in stroke patients with hemiplegia, and relieve the patients' unhealthy psychological emotion. Key words: Stroke; Anxiety; Depression; Virtual reality training; Walking function; Activities of daily living