Virtual Reality Is Safe and Can Reduce In-Hospital Anxiety and Pain: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses and Trial...

Area of Science:

• Medical technology
• Surgical innovation
• Patient care

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in hospitals for surgical procedures.
• The impact of VR on patient outcomes remains unclear.
• This review focuses on VR's effect on adult patients undergoing elective surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the impact of virtual reality (VR) on adult patients undergoing elective surgical procedures.
• To assess VR's effectiveness in improving patient outcomes.
• To evaluate VR as a non-pharmacological intervention in surgical settings.

Main Methods:

• Searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases for studies published after 2017.
• Assessed risk of bias using ROB2 and ROBINS-I.
• Performed meta-analyses, Trial Sequential Analyses, and GRADE evaluation for randomized controlled trials.

Main Results:

• Included 37 studies (3152 patients).
• VR significantly reduced anxiety (p<0.0001) and pain (p<0.00005).
• Observed shorter recovery times; adverse events were mild and infrequent.

Conclusions:

• Virtual reality effectively reduces pain and anxiety in hospitalized adult surgical patients.
• VR is a safe adjunct to standard care with minimal side effects.
• Further standardized, high-quality trials are needed due to outcome heterogeneity and bias risk.