According to Marxent, “Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment”. It may seem like VR is only good for gaming as it has been mostly used for that purpose. However, it turns out that it can be very convenient in an operating room.
As stated on BBC News, “virtual reality headsets are being offered during regional anaesthetic surgeries at a south London hospital to try and reduce stress among patients”. The technology is being tried out by Orthopaedic surgeons in St George’s Hospital in London. As stated on BBC News, “the technique [is being tested] with patients undergoing upper limb surgery, as a way of helping them to relax and reduce any anxiety they may be feeling”.
Patients during upper limb surgery are given regional anesthetic which makes them not feel the pain in the area where they are operated. Unfortunately, they are awake and conscious which makes some people very anxious as they can hear the procedure and doctors’ conversations. It was stated in BBC News, that in the past patients would get sedation which made them calmer but nowadays, thanks to VR, they do not need to do that as patients are given VR headsets as well as headphones so they are unable to see or hear anything that is going on in the room. Instead, they are “transported” to some picturesque locations where they can relax.
Moreover, it has been proved by PubMed that “virtual reality patients felt the experience helped them to relax, and they would recommend virtual reality-assisted wide-awake local anesthesia no tourniquet surgery”. It was also stated that “among patients with self-reported preexisting anxiety, virtual reality patients had lower pain and anxiety scores during injection of local anesthesia compared with non-virtual reality patients”.
To sum up, so far VR is only used in upper limb surgery but the results are great. Therefore, it might have broader use in the future.
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I totally agree that VR could be really useful in the medical sphere. In my life, I had 2 serious surgeries, that were performed while I was under local anesthesia. To be honest, it was very scary, because I was seeing, that doctors were putting different medical instruments right in my body and to be honest it wasn’t the best feeling. So, because of that, I think, that VR could be really useful for patients during surgery, because it will help them to relax and not pay attention to it.
Using VR during surgery is an excellent idea to make the patient relax. It is better than anesthesia which has side effects.