Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston have published a study showing that patients wearing VR headsets need less anesthetic during hand surgery, MIT News reports.
Conventional patients required an average of 750.6 mg of the sedative propofol per hour, while those who watched relaxing VR content such as meditation, nature scenes and videos required only 125.3 mg. In addition, patients wearing VR headsets also recovered sooner, leaving the post-anesthesia ward after an average of 63 minutes, compared with 75 minutes for regular patients.
The researchers claim that VR distracted patients from pain, yet they also acknowledge that the headset wearers entered the operating room already expecting VR to help, which may have skewed the results of the experiment.
▼ A is a scene from the surgery experiment and B is a VR screen
However, the team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is planning to rule out this comforting effect. A follow-up trial will also evaluate the effects of VR on those undergoing hip and knee surgery. Past experiments, such as those at St. Joseph’s Hospital in France, have shown that the technology can indeed help ease patients’ moods.
