ew realities: a review on effectiveness of virtual technologies in the treatment of multiple sclerosis patients

Background:The progression of multiple sclerosis leads to physical disability in patients. These impairment affect the quality of life and daily activities. Treating patients with neurological problems requires performance of rehabilitation exercises. Virtual technology has been proposed as a new therapeutic tool to help improve patients treatment and function. The purpose of this review was to investigate the impact of virtual technologies in treatment in patients with MS. Material and Methods: An electronic search without time limitation was performed using the following databases: PubMed, web of sciences, Scopus, Embase. Keywords are as follows: virtual reality OR hybrid reality OR mixed reality ORaugmented reality OR simulation OR video game OR videogames OR exergame AND multiple sclerosis. Related articles were retrieved and reviewed. We analyzed obtained articles on the basis of objective research. Results:A total of 1827 articles were identified. Finally, 25 articles were included in the study. The majority of papers showed that the use of virtual technologies is effective in treating MS patients. Virtual reality and games have been used to cognitive rehabilitation, balance training, motor rehabilitation and improvement of gait.Conclusion:Virtual technologies are an innovative tool for patients and people with disabilities which can serve as aneffective therapeutic alternative in the absence of access to traditional treatment. According to the findings,virtual reality and games have the ability to improve motor and balance performance in a disabledpopulation. Most articles showed positive feedback from the virtual interactive environment for treating MSpatients and adherence of rehabilitation programs

کلیدواژه ها:

Virtual Reality ، Augmented Reality ، Mixed Reality ، Game ، Multiple Sclerosis