Skip to content

It's ski and ACL season! Boost your rehabilitation with Virtual Reality!

Here we are in the middle of the winter season, and many snow sports enthusiasts have been looking forward to their return to the slopes. Long deprived of their favourite sport because of the health situation, reflexes are not necessarily what they used to be, muscles and joints are less prepared, it is likely that we will receive more patients for traumas related to this practice.

In most cases, the injury occurs following a pivot movement with foot lock. This is a valgus-flexion mechanism, then the foot remains attached to the ski, the external rotation gives the coup de grace. With increasingly powerful equipment, skiers tend to increase their speed of descent and consequently the injuries are more serious [1]. With more than 15,000 operations per year for ACL rupture, it is the most common injury of severe sprains [2].

After a traumatic injury that has led to surgery, immobilisation and functional incapacity, it is very common for patients to have a fear of movement or kinesiophobia. During the early stages of rehabilitation, virtual reality will be a tool of choice to immerse our patient and divert his attention from the pain [3]. This will allow us to get the patient back into movement and to recover normal joint amplitudes more quickly and thus avoid, for example, antalgic flexion.

As far as muscle rehabilitation is concerned, there is no secret, if we want to work on endurance, strength, power and speed of contraction, it will be necessary to gradually increase the number of repetitions and the load. It will also be necessary to modulate the recovery time between each set while remaining constant to obtain better results. It is sometimes demotivating for a patient, session after session, to have to repeat the same exercises over and over again. Faced with boredom, the patient will tend to miss sessions and their recovery will be impacted. The ability to perform these hundreds of repetitions in a fun way will help to overcome the boredom that even the most apathetic patients may experience.

Virtual reality also has something to say about the pre-sport stage. According to Gokeler et al (2016), an operated knee shows altered movement patterns. In this study, the use of immersive virtual reality helped to refine these patterns, and consequently to improve motor learning rehabilitation to decrease the risk of relapse in post ACL reconstruction patients. The evaluation of return to sport criteria has been shown to be more accurate [4].

Today, it is also possible to stimulate the patient's sight to immerse him in an environment close to the ecological conditions of skiing. This makes it possible to couple this visual input with a proprioceptive stimulus using a dynamic posturography platform (Figure 1) that can recreate the inclination of the slope, the relief of the terrain, the visual scrolling due to the movement in space, all in a controlled, safe environment where the parameters can be modified in real time.

Thanks to VR (Virtual Reality), it is now easier to present our patient with clear and objective data on the progress made and the progress of their rehabilitation. Patients regain joint range of motion more quickly, and the literature as a whole reflects an increased motivation of patients, who are more engaged and involved in their own rehabilitation.

Therapeutic VR, rehabilitation in a hurry!

Bibliography :

[1] B. Dohin; R. Kohler (2008). Traumatology of skiing and snowboarding in children and adolescents: epidemiology, pathophysiology, prevention and main injuries. , 15(11), 0-1723.

[2] LIGAMENTAIRES, L. (2007). Ligament and meniscus injuries of the knee and ankle. La Revue du praticien, 57, 407.

[3] Anita Gupta, DO, Kevin Scott, BS, Matthew Dukewich, PharmD, Innovative Technology Using Virtual Reality in the Treatment of Pain: Does It Reduce Pain via Distraction, or Is There More to It, Pain Medicine, Volume 19, Issue 1, January 2018, Pages 151-159

[4] Gokeler, Alli; Bisschop, Marsha; Myer, Gregory D.; Benjaminse, Anne; Dijkstra, Pieter U.; van Keeken, Helco G.; van Raay, Jos J. A. M.; Burgerhof, Johannes G. M.; Otten, Egbert (2016). Immersive virtual reality improves movement patterns in patients after ACL reconstruction: implications for enhanced criteria-based return-to-sport rehabilitation. Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, 24(7), 2280-2286. doi:10.1007/s00167-014-3374-x

Source : Dr Romain Letartre, The anterior cruciate and posterior cruciate ligaments: ruptures consulted on 16.12.2021
URL: https://www.irbms.com/genou-ligaments-croise-anterieur-posterieur/

Did you like this publication?

Share
Share
Share
Share
Demonstration request

Please complete the form so that we can study your request for a demonstration.

Demonstration request

Please complete the form and one of our team members will get back to you momentarily. Typical response times are within 24hrs.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Please complete the form so that we can register you for our Newsletter.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Please complete the form below to register for our newsletter:

Registration
Newsletter

Follow all our news by subscribing to our newsletter: