Virtual Reality Training Improves Balance Outcome in Stroke Patients

Introduction: Stroke is the leading cause of disability which leads to decline in the functional status and quality of life of patients. The virtual reality training is one of more recent and interesting approaches to facilitate the speedy recovery after stroke. Objective of study: The objective of this study was to compare the balance outcome in virtual reality training and task oriented training in stroke patients. Methods: It was a randomized control trial and conducted in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Department of Pakistan Railway Hospital, Rawalpindi (March-August 2016). Twenty four patients were enrolled through non probability sampling and were randomly allocated to two equal groups. The baseline assessment was taken through berg Balance Test and 06 weeks of training. The training includes the additional virtual reality through exer-gaming to one group and task oriented training alone to other group. The re-assessment was taken after 02, 04 & 06weeks and statistical analysis was applied to evaluate betweenand within-group differences. Results: The mean age of the participants was 50.0±9.07 of VRT group and 50.16±86 of TOT group. 70% (17) were male and 30% (7) were female in sample. The results showed statistically significant difference between groups after 4 (p = 0.038) and 6 (0.001) weeks of trainings. There was significant improvement seen in both study groups as a result of trainings (p <0.001. Conclusion: It is concluded that 6 weeks of virtual reality training through exer-gaming has better outcome regarding the balance as compared to the task oriented training.