Virtual Reality Therapy to Control Burn Pain: Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Virtual reality therapy has been shown to be an excellent alternative to non-pharmacological treatment for the control of burn pain. The objective was to evaluate the effects of virtual reality therapy on pain control in people who have suffered burns published in the scientific literature. Systematic review carried out as recommended by Cochrane. The search was carried out in the Embase, PubMed, Lilacs, and Cochrane Library databases, in the period from March 2021. Randomized clinical trials were included without language restriction and year of publication. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane tool. Of the 3755 articles found, only 17 articles were selected for reading in full. Of these, only four articles met the inclusion criteria. The results of the studies showed that the use of virtual reality therapy reduced the intensity of pain in children and adolescents with burns, despite the fact that most results are not statistically significant. No selected study had a high risk of bias. Virtual reality therapy has been shown to be effective in controlling pain, reducing the time spent thinking about it and greater distraction during the procedures. However, most randomized clinical trials results were not statistically significant in at least one of the moments when pain was assessed. It is noteworthy that randomized clinical trials are still necessary to administer virtual reality therapy, especially in adults.