Video Games May Help Stroke Victims
From: Associated Press
By: Jamie Stengle

When stroke victims played virtual reality games in which they imagined they
were diving with sharks or snowboarding down a narrow slope, their ability to
walk eventually improved, researchers reported in a small study. 

Doctors called the findings promising, especially since the patients had all
had strokes more than a year earlier, a time frame when further recovery is
unlikely. 

"People love to play games," said study co-author Dr. Mark Hallett, and the
virtual reality therapy helped the patients use their weakened legs and
ultimately walk better. Hallett is chief of the human motor control section
with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. 

While the study size was small and the volunteers relatively young - 10
stroke victims with an average age of 57 - the researchers believe video
games may be a good way to keep patients engaged in therapy. 

About 700,000 people each year experience a new or recurrent stroke, which
often impairs one side of the body and walking ability. 

The patients in the study, which appeared in Thursday's issue of the journal
Stroke, all had weakness on one side of their body. Researchers randomly
assigned them to a control group or a virtual reality group. The control
group got no intervention while the virtual reality group used the video
training for an hour a day, five days a week for more than a month. 

"This was a group of people that you would not expect to improve, and that's
what made it interesting that they did," said Dr. Robert Felberg, director of
the stroke program at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. 

The three games in which the patient's body is superimposed into the scene
were used to build a range of motion, balance, mobility, stepping and walking
skills. One game simulated going up and down stairs, another let the patient
go deep-sea diving with sharks and the third recreated snowboarding by
simulating gliding down a narrow slope, jumping and avoiding obstacles. 

The five patients who played the games improved in walking, standing and
climbing steps, researchers said. Also, brain imaging done before and after
the experiment indicated a reorganization of brain function after the
therapy, said lead author, Sung H. You, assistant professor of physical
therapy at Hampton University in Hampton, Va. 

Experts said more study is needed. 

"It doesn't show that virtual reality is any better than any other
intervention," said Dr. Allen Brown, medical director of brain rehabilitation
at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. 

And neurology professor Dr. Lawrence Wechsler, director of the University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center Stroke Institute, said, "I think it's too early to
make any conclusions about virtual reality therapy. It looks promising and I
would say it's something that we'd continue to investigate."  

Links:
American Stroke Association
http://www.strokeassociation.org

Mark Hallett
http://intra.ninds.nih.gov/Lab.asp?Org_ID=72
http://neuroscience.nih.gov/Lab.asp?Org_ID=72

Article title
Virtual Reality-Induced Cortical Reorganization and Associated Locomotor
  Recovery in Chronic Stroke. An Experimenter-Blind Randomized Study 

Article abstract
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/01.STR.0000162715.43417.91v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=hallett&searchid=1115938767738_3563&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&search_url=http%3A%2F%2Fstroke.ahajournals.org%2Fcgi%2Fsearch&journalcode=strokeaha

Article in pdf
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/01.STR.0000162715.43417.91v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=hallett&searchid=1115938767738_3563&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&search_url=http%3A%2F%2Fstroke.ahajournals.org%2Fcgi%2Fsearch&journalcode=strokeaha

Video
http://www.nrhhealthtown.com/healthtown/Telemed/you_hb.asx