OBJECTIVES: Approximately 4.6 million people die, and 40,000 new stroke patients are registered each year worldwide, 30-40% of whom became disabled. Using new alternative therapies, the patient's motivation could be maintained for a longer period of time. With virtual reality glasses, we can make conventional neurological therapy more diverse. We aimed to measure the effectiveness of virtual reality glasses among stroke patients.

METHODS: We conducted a quantitative, longitudinal research, selecting non-randomly stroke patients from age 18 to 75 years, at University of Pécs Clinical Center, Department of Neurosurgery. 18 participants took part of the 3 week program. The conventional neurological therapy for the intervention group was supplemented with virtual reality goggles (8 persons), the control group (10 persons) received only the conventional neurological care. Patients’ sense of balance was measured at the baseline and at the end of the program by Functional Reach test (FR) and Berg Balance scale (BBS), the walking ability by Timed Up and Go test (TUG). Statistical analysis was performed using Mann Whitney and Wilcoxon tests (SPSS 22.0).

RESULTS: FR test in the intervention group showed significant improvement in forward direction (21.50±2.61; 24.12±2.53 cm; p=0.010), and in the hemiparetic side (14.63±2.26; 17.25±2.12 cm; p=0,011), but no significantly better result compared to the control group. The intervention group showed significant improvement in TUG test (60.12±30.73; 44±23.97 sec; p=0.012), but no clinically significant (p<0.62) difference was found between the groups. The improvement in the intervention group’s BBS was clinically significant (37.20±2.80; 44.20±5.30 point; p=0.041), and we measured significantly better result after the program compared to the control group (int.:44.20±5.30 point; cont.: 36.30±4.50 point; p=0,012).

CONCLUSIONS: Virtual reality can be a useful complementary therapy for conventional neurological rehabilitation in terms of balance, and walking ability.