Stroke :

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Stroke can be secondary to ischemic or haemorrhagic brain injury, resulting in chronic neuromuscular disturbances. Stroke patients who develop cognitive, sensory, and motor dysfunction are at an increased risk for developing motor imbalance, and therefore, post-Stroke recovery of function is essential for these individuals.

Types of Strokes :

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1. Ischemic Stroke
2. Haemorrhagic Stroke

Recently, There has been used robot-assisted rehabilitation or virtual reality (VR) equipment to treat Stroke patients. A VR-based exercise program (VREp) involves applying engineering technology to rehabilitation. It promotes motor learning in the paralyzed extremities of patients. The VREp provides auditory, visual, and proprioceptive feedback in a virtual reality environment, offering individualized exercise training programs.

In addition, it creates a training environment that can adjust the difficulty of the exercise to the individual’s level of adaptation. VR environments have been used for post-Stroke rehabilitation. In these cases, it has been mainly used as an interventional tool for the functional recovery of the extremities, and it is effective in achieving recovery of extremity’s function in Stroke patients

Accordingly, this study examined the effects of a VREp on the post-Stroke recovery of cognitive function and activities of daily living (ADL) in the rehabilitation of Stroke patients. VR can provide patients with more sensory stimulation, a more immersive environment, and real-time feedback during specific motor tasks, reflecting motor learning and neuroplasticity. Therefore, this approach can be considered as a complement to traditional rehabilitation therapies.

Effect of VR in several functions :

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1. Cognitive function : improved significantly in Stroke patients with cognitive impairment who received VR training plus computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation, compared to those who received VR training only, Stroke patients with cognitive impairment experienced significantly improved visual attention and short-term visuospatial memory after therapy that included computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation and VR training together. suggested that interactive exercise was associated with improved function and that a relatively simple physical exercise program could improve learning ability by reducing the attention overload through VR.
2. ADL : Improvement in the ability to perform ADL in patients treated with VR.
3. Movements : movements of the upper extremities and find motor such as catching and moving things that are also used in VR programms.
4. VR group showed improved manual dexterity, grip force, and control of the affected upper limb in Stroke patients after training in an immersive VR environment.

Effects of immersive VR training with a cortical reorganization and arm and hand motor function in participants with chronic Stroke with mild to moderate impairment. VREP therapy, there were significant differences in cognitive function, performance of ADL, and upper extremity motor function between the baseline and endpoint assessments. reported that VR using video games resulted in significant improvements in the muscle strength of the upper extremities and performance of ADL.

In summary, that rehabilitation training with a VREP improved cognitive function, fine motor movements and ADL performance, and upper extremity motor function. Therefore, rehabilitation training with a VREP is a potentially effective and clinically applicable modality for achieving recovery of function in Stroke patients.