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Review
. 2022 Mar 17;11(6):1670.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11061670.

State-of-the-Art Review on Immersive Virtual Reality Interventions for Colonoscopy-Induced Anxiety and Pain

Marcel-Alexandru Găină  1   2 , Andreea Silvana Szalontay  1   2 , Gabriela Ștefănescu  3   4 , Gheorghe Gh Bălan  3   4 , Cristina Mihaela Ghiciuc  5 , Alexandra Boloș  1   2 , Alexandra-Maria Găină  6 , Cristinel Ștefănescu  1   2
Affiliations
Review

State-of-the-Art Review on Immersive Virtual Reality Interventions for Colonoscopy-Induced Anxiety and Pain

Marcel-Alexandru Găină et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: Colonoscopy related fear impairs the current gold standard screening of colorectal cancer. Compared to other minimally invasive procedures for cancer screening, colonoscopy-induced anxiety exceeds the procedure through bowel preparation. Immersive virtual reality's (iVR) role in alleviating the complex stress-pain relationship encountered during medical procedures is directly proportional to the rising affordability of state-of-the-art Head-Mounted-Displays (HMDs).

Objective: to assess the effect of iVR on patients' colonoscopy-induced anxiety and pain.

Materials and methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, Embase and Scopus databases up to January 2022. Clinical trials evaluating anxiety as an outcome were included without language restriction.

Results: Four clinical trials were included: three on the patients' intraprocedural anxiety and one on patient education. Intraprocedural iVR interventions for colonoscopy-induced anxiety and pain revealed a similar effect as conventional sedation, while a statistically significant reduction was reported for non-sedated patients. iVR patient education improved the quality of bowel preparation and reduced patient anxiety before colonoscopy.

Conclusions: The current research highlights the need to use high-end HMDs and appropriate interactive iVR software content for colonoscopy-induced anxiety. Methodological frameworks regarding the eligibility of participants, double-blinding and randomization of iVR studies can facilitate the development of iVR implementation for anxiety and pain management.

Keywords: VR education; VR training; anxiety; colonoscopy screening; consumer VR; mental health; pain management; virtual reality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funder had no role in the study’s design, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Virtual reality (VR) equipment and yearly publication trends from 1985 to 2022.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PRISMA flowchart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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