BackgroundHospitalized patients with cancer often experience acute and/or chronic pain. Although virtual reality (VR) has been extensively studied across a wide range of clinical settings, no studies have yet evaluated potential impact on pain management in this patient population.MethodsProspective randomized controlled trial at an urban academic hospital comparing VR against an active control to mitigate moderate‐severe cancer disease and treatment‐related pain.ResultsA total of 128 adult hospitalized patients with cancer (any tumor type) were randomized to 10 minutes of immersive VR distraction therapy or 10 minutes of two‐dimensional guided imagery distraction therapy delivered by handheld tablet. Participants in the two arms were similar in age, sex, race, presence of metastatic disease, concurrent pain specialist consultation, and baseline opioid use. Although both groups experienced improved self‐reported pain scores (primary outcome), those randomized to VR experienced significantly greater reduction in pain immediately after intervention compared with active control (p = .03). This difference was sustained for 24 hours as well (p = .004). Within‐group analysis showed significant improvement in VR arm of pain bothersomeness (p = .05) and general distress (p = .03) as well.ConclusionAmong hospitalized adult patients with moderate‐severe pain related to cancer and cancer therapies, VR provided more nonpharmacologic pain relief than active control and this benefit sustained long after conclusion of the intervention.Plain Language Summary Virtual reality (VR), a developing technology that immerses the user in new environments, has been shown to improve pain in different patient populations. To test the role of VR in improving pain in hospitalized patients with cancer who report moderate‐severe pain, we compared the impact of a 10‐minute immersive VR intervention to that of a 10‐minute two‐dimensional guided imagery experience to improve self‐reported pain scores. We found that, although both interventions improved pain, VR did so significantly more. Moreover, participants assigned to VR had sustained improvement in pain 24 hours later.

中文翻译：

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虚拟现实用于癌症住院患者疼痛管理：一项随机对照试验

背景住院癌症患者经常经历急性和/或慢性疼痛。尽管虚拟现实 (VR) 已在广泛的临床环境中得到广泛研究，但尚未有研究评估对这一患者群体疼痛管理的潜在影响。方法在一家城市学术医院进行前瞻性随机对照试验，将 VR 与主动控制进行比较，以减轻疼痛结果共有 128 名成年住院癌症患者（任何肿瘤类型）被随机分配接受 10 分钟的沉浸式 VR 分心治疗或 10 分钟的手持平板电脑提供的二维引导意象分心治疗。两组的参与者在年龄、性别、种族、转移性疾病的存在、同时进行的疼痛专家咨询和阿片类药物的基线使用方面相似。尽管两组的自我报告疼痛评分（主要结果）均有所改善，但与主动对照组相比，随机接受 VR 的患者在干预后立即感受到疼痛明显减轻（p= .03)。这种差异也持续了 24 小时（p= .004)。组内分析显示 VR 手臂疼痛困扰显着改善（p= .05) 和一般遇险 (p= .03) 同样。结论在因癌症和癌症治疗相关的中重度疼痛的住院成年患者中，VR 比主动控制提供更多的非药物疼痛缓解，并且这种益处在干预结束后持续很长时间。通俗语言摘要 虚拟现实 (VR) 是一项不断发展的技术，可以让用户沉浸在新环境中，已被证明可以改善不同患者群体的疼痛。 为了测试 VR 在改善患有中重度疼痛的住院癌症患者疼痛方面的作用，我们比较了 10 分钟沉浸式 VR 干预与 10 分钟二维引导意象体验对改善自我的影响。报告疼痛评分。 我们发现，虽然两种干预措施都能改善疼痛，但 VR 的效果明显更好。此外，分配到 VR 的参与者 24 小时后疼痛持续改善。