Development of virtual reality proprioceptive rehabilitation system for stroke patients

Abstract

tIn this study, the virtual reality (VR) proprioception rehabilitation system was developedfor stroke patients to use proprioception feedback in upper limb rehabilitation by block-ing visual feedback. To evaluate its therapeutic effect, 10 stroke patients (onset > 3 month)trained proprioception feedback rehabilitation for one week and visual feedback rehabil-itation for another week in random order. Proprioception functions were checked before,a week after, and at the end of training. The results show the click count, error distanceand total error distance among proprioception evaluation factors were significantly reducedafter proprioception feedback training compared to visual feedback training (respectively,p = 0.005, p = 0.001, and p = 0.007). In addition, subjects were significantly improved in con-ventional behavioral tests after training. In conclusion, we showed the effectiveness andpossible use of the VR to recover the proprioception of stroke patients.