the official magazine of the brain injury association of california
The World Health Organization estimates that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is and will remain the most important cause of neurodisability in the coming years. The search for neuroprotective therapies for severe TBI has been extensive but unfruitful over the last few decades, testified by mo e than 30 failed clinical trials, and we still have no specific neu oprotective therapy, that is, effective in clinica TBI. The burden of mortality and residual disability calls for new approaches to promote recovery of function of TBI patients in the acute and chronic phase. Classically described as a sudden event with short-term consequences, TBI induces dynamic pathological cascades that may persist for months or years after injury with a major impact on outcome. Among dynamic mechanisms, the neuroinflammatory esponse and the accumulation of aberrant proteins may have a critical role in establishing a neuropathological link between acute mechanical injury and late neurodegeneration. The close association between post-TBI neurological changes, persistent neuroinflammation, and lat neuropathology highlights the fact that the window of opportunity for therapeutic intervention may be much wider than previously thought and that long-term treatment encompassing the acute and chronic phase should be tested to effectively interfe e with this complex condition. An emerging technology, virtual reality (VR), represents a new tool for this purpose and might provide TBI care teams with new neuro-restorative strategies readily available at the bedside. Since the late 1980s, this term has been used to describe a 3D synthetic environment created by computer graphics, where the user has the feeling of being inside. VR can be described as “an advanced form of human-computer interface that allows the user to interact with and become immersed in a computer-generated environment in a naturalistic fashion”. For its flexibilit , sense of presence (i.e., the feeling of “being there”) and emotional engagement, VR has been tested in motor and cognitive rehabilitation, with good results. In stroke patients, the number of VR programs is rapidly increasing with compelling data showing an improvement in recovery of motor function and daily living activities. VR has been successfully used both as assessment instrument and as therapeutic intervention. As assessment tool, VR has been used to detect visual-vestibular deficits in adults after concussion and mild BI. VR assessment protocols appear to be primarily implemented for mild TBI. Conversely, VR treatment protocols for cognitive rehabilitation are used transversely from mild to severe conditions, although effectiveness of thes kinds of interventions needs to be further explored.
