Enhancing Pediatric Liver Transplant Therapy With Virtual Reality

Surgery and hospital stays for pediatric transplantation involve frequent interventions that require complete sedation, care and self-care, disease assimilation, and anxiety for the patient. This article presents the development of a comprehensive tool called virtual transplant reality (VTR) currently used in a hospital with actual patients. Our tool is intended to provide an aid to the psychological support of children who have undergone a liver transplant. VTR consists of two applications: a virtual reality application with a head mounted display worn by the patient and a desktop application for the therapist. After tests carried out at the Hospital Universitario La Paz (Madrid, Spain) over a period of one year with 65 patients, the results indicate that our system offers a series of advantages as a complement to the psychological therapy of pediatric transplant patients.