Article Text
Summary
In clinical practice, therapists often encounter cases of unilateral spatial neglect (USN) observed in far and near space. In this case report, immersive virtual reality (VR) technology was adopted as a therapy tool in a patient with stroke with severe near and far space neglect. Neuropsychological tests in near and far space as well as the Catherine Bergego Scale (CBS), as an index of neglect in daily living, were measured preintervention and postintervention. Improvement of neuropsychological tests, particularly in far space, was clearly demonstrated postintervention. However, CBS score did not change postintervention. This may be because the patient unsuccessfully translated these visual search task skills used in far space to activities of daily living. Our findings suggest the potential use of immersive VR technology in patients with USN and highlight the VR programme’s limited ability to fully recover a patient’s disability in natural settings.
- stroke
- rehabilitation medicine
- virtual rehabilitation
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Footnotes
Contributors KY performed the design of this study, acquisition and analysis of data and drafting the manuscript. DM, MH and KS made substantial contributions to the acquisition and analysis of the data. HI was involved in the conception of the system and design of the study. Each of the authors has read and concurs with the content of the final manuscript. No one who qualifies for authorship has been omitted from the list.
Funding This study was funded by Global Robot Academia Institute, Waseda University with grant number FY2017, Grant-in-Aid for Junior Researchers, Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University with grant number Technological Research Section: 16C13.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.