Virtual reality for pain management in advanced heart failure: A randomized controlled study

Hospitalized patients with advanced heart failure often experience acute and/or chronic pain. While virtual reality has been extensively studied across a wide range of clinical settings, no studies have yet evaluated potential impact on pain management on this patient population.

To investigate the impact of a virtual reality experience on self-reported pain, quality-of-life, general distress, and satisfaction compared to a two-dimensional guided imagery active control.

Single-center prospective randomized controlled study. The primary outcome was the difference in pre- versus post-intervention self-reported pain scores on a numerical rating scale from 0 to 10. Secondary outcomes included changes in quality-of-life scores, general distress, and satisfaction with the intervention.

Between October 2018 and March 2020, 88 participants hospitalized with advanced heart failure were recruited from an urban tertiary academic medical center.

Participants experienced significant improvement in pain score after either 10 minutes of virtual reality (change from pre- to post -2.9 ± 2.6, p < 0.0001) or 10 minutes of guided imagery (change from pre- to post -1.3 ± 1.8, p = 0.0001); the virtual reality arm experienced a 1.5 unit comparatively greater reduction in pain score compared to guided imagery (p = 0.0011). Total quality-of-life and general distress scores did not significantly change for either arm. Seventy-eight participants (89%) responded that they would be willing to use the assigned intervention again.

Virtual reality may be an effective nonpharmacologic adjuvant pain management intervention in hospitalized patients with heart failure.

ClinicalTrials.gov database (NCT04572425).