Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Dec 20:9:2508.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02508. eCollection 2018.

Virtual Reality Analgesia During Venipuncture in Pediatric Patients With Onco-Hematological Diseases

Barbara Atzori  1 , Hunter G Hoffman  2 , Laura Vagnoli  3 , David R Patterson  4 , Wadee Alhalabi  5   6 , Andrea Messeri  7 , Rosapia Lauro Grotto  1   8
Affiliations

Virtual Reality Analgesia During Venipuncture in Pediatric Patients With Onco-Hematological Diseases

Barbara Atzori et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: Venipuncture is described by children as one of the most painful and frightening medical procedures. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) as a distraction technique to help control pain in children and adolescents undergoing venipuncture. Methods: Using a within-subjects design, fifteen patients (mean age 10.92, SD = 2.64) suffering from oncological or hematological diseases received one venipuncture with "No VR" and one venipuncture with "Yes VR" on two separate days (treatment order randomized). "Time spent thinking about pain", "Pain Unpleasantness", "Worst pain" the quality of VR experience, fun during the venipuncture and nausea were measured. Results: During VR, patients reported significant reductions in "Time spent thinking about pain," "Pain unpleasantness," and "Worst pain". Patients also reported significantly more fun during VR, and reported a "Strong sense of going inside the computer-generated world" during VR. No side effects were reported. Conclusion: VR can be considered an effective distraction technique for children and adolescents' pain management during venipuncture. Moreover, VR may elicit positive emotions, more than traditional distraction techniques. This could help patients cope with venipuncture in a non-stressful manner. Additional research and development is needed.

Keywords: adolescents; children; distraction; pain; pediatric cancer; virtual reality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Male patients ratings of pain.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Female patients ratings of pain.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Atzori B., Hoffman H. G., Vagnoli L., Messeri A., Grotto R. L. (2018a). “Virtual Reality as Distraction Technique for Pain Management in Children and Adolescents,” in Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition, ed. Khosrow-Pour M. (New York, NY: Idea Group Inc.), 5955–5965.
    1. Atzori B., Vagnoli L., Messeri A., Lauro Grotto R. (2018b). “Virtual Reality for Pain Management Among Children and Adolescents: Applicability in Clinical Settings and Limitations,” in Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Virtual, Augmented, and Intelligent Environments. UAHCI 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, eds Antona M., Stephanidis C. (Cham: Springer; ).
    1. Atzori B., Hoffman H. G., Vagnoli L., Patterson D. R., Alhalabi W., Messeri A., Lauro Grotto R.et al. (2018c). Virtual reality analgesia during venipuncture in pediatric patients with onco-hematological diseases. Front. Psychol. 9:2508 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02508 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bailey B., Gravel J., Daoust R. (2012). Reliability of the visual analog scale in children with acute pain in the emergency department. Pain 153 839–842. 10.1016/j.pain.2012.01.006 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bailey J. O., Bailenson J. N. (2017). Considering virtual reality in children’s lives. J. Child. Media 11 107–113. 10.1080/17482798.2016.1268779 - DOI