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CompletedNCT03454256VRRS_KNEEUpdated Apr 10, 2024

Virtual Reality Rehabilitation in Patients With Total Knee Replacement

An interventional study of Virtual Reality in Knee Arthropathy and Total Knee Replacement, sponsored by IRCCS San Raffaele Roma. Completed at 1 site in Italy. Open to participants aged 50 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-04-10.

Sponsored by IRCCS San Raffaele Roma · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
48
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
50 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Impaired proprioceptive accuracy could be a risk factor for progression of gait limitations in knee osteoarthritis patients, even after the Total Knee Replacement (TKR). Recent studies on Virtual Reality (VR) in rehabilitation show its efficacy in restoring proprioceptive capacity, postural control and gait. However, literature lacks such studies in TKR patients. This preliminary study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a VR system for the enhancement of motor skills in TKR patients compared to a traditional approach of rehabilitation.

Read the detailed description

In this randomized controlled trial (RCT), the randomization of the sample will be performed by a local software and in a single blind design. Forty patients will be enrolled and after giving the informed consent, assigned to two groups :

  • the experimental group (VRG), which will be undergone to treatment with virtual reality for the recovery of load distribution and proper gait pattern;
  • the control group (CG), which will be undergone to a traditional rehabilitation addressed to recovery of correct gait pattern for the same time period as VRG.

Both treatments consist in 15 sessions, at least 5 per week , each lasting 45 minutes. Both VRG or CG will last for 21 days from the start of treatment.

All patients, in adjunction to Virtual Reality Rehabilitation (EG) or Traditional Rehabilitation (CG), will execute a global rehabilitation project, consisting in Physiotherapy, Physical Therapies for pain and inflammation control, and Occupational Therapy, personalized by a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team for a minimum of 150-180 minutes per day, and according to their clinical conditions for them.

The purposes of this study in detail are:

  1. Observing differences in the distribution of the bi-podalic load in the group that performs a re-education with virtual reality compared to those who perform the traditional treatment.
  2. Observing differences in the recovery time of a correct pattern of gait in the group that performs a re-education with virtual reality compared to those who perform a traditional treatment.
  3. Observing changes in neurophysiological patterns in the two groups.
02

Conditions studied

  • Knee Arthropathy
  • Total Knee Replacement

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Keywords

  • Virtual Reality
  • Total Knee Replacement
  • Proprioception
  • Balance
  • Gait
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
50 Years to 80 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • recruitment and initial assessment within 10 days of surgery;
  • monolateral knee arthroplasty in election;
  • collaborating patients who are able to perform the proposed exercise;
  • good cardiovascular compensation;
  • cognitively intact;
  • able to provide informed consent;

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • no severe cognitive / behavioral deficit;
  • refusal or inability to provide informed consent;
  • presence of sever cardiorespiratory co-morbidities;
  • peripheral and /or central neurological deficits;
  • visual deficits;
  • presence of serious osteo-arthro-muscular diseases at controlateral lower limb against the prosthetic side;
  • complication at surgical wound
04

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
48 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Virtual Reality Group (VRG)

    The Virtual Reality Group (VRG) will perform the rehabilitation trough the Virtual Reality Rehabilitation system (VRRS, Khymeia,Italy). The patient standing upright on a balance board will practice exercises of vertical position control with a visual biofeedback received from the VRRS and interacting with the serious video-games. The difficulty level of the exercises will increase gradually session by session. Every session will last 45 minutes with a frequency of at least 5 times a week.

    Device: Virtual Reality

  • No intervention
    Control Group (CG)

    The Control Group (CG) will perform the traditional treatment consisting of the exercises of rehabilitation of gait and postural passages, exercises for postural control, and proprioceptive exercises in a vertical position according to the method chosen by the physiotherapist. Every session will last 45 minutes with a frequency of at least 5 times a week.

Interventions

  • DeviceVirtual Reality

    Virtual Reality Rehabilitation System

    Also known as: VRRS EVO, Khymeia s.r.l., Italy

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in Time Up and Go (TUG)

    The TUG is a timed test used to assess mobility, balance, and walking in people with balance impairments. The subject must stand up from a chair (which should not be leaned up against a wall), walk a distance of 3 meters, turn around, walk back to the chair and sit down - all performed as quickly and as safely as possible.

    Time frame: Session 1 (baseline) and session 15 (day 21)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in 10 Meter Walk Test (10-MWT)

    The 10-MWT examine the patient's gait speed. Patients will be directed to walk at their preferred maximum but safe speed. Patients will be positioned 1 meter before the start line and instructed to walk the entire distance and past the end line approximately 1 meter. The distance before and after the course are meant to minimize the effect of acceleration and deceleration. Time will be recorded using a stopwatch and recorded to the one hundredth of a second (ex: 2.15 second). The test will be recorded 3 times, with adequate rest in between. The average of the 3 times should be recorded.

    Time frame: Session 1 (baseline) and session 15 (day 21)

  2. Change in Medical Research Council scale (MRC)

    The MRC will be used to evaluate the muscle strength of Quadriceps Femoris (QF) and Tibialis Anterior (TA). The muscle scale grades muscle power on a scale of 0 to 5 in relation to the maximum expected for that muscle.

    Time frame: Session 1 (baseline) and session 15 (day 21)

  3. Change in Visual Analog Scale (VAS)

    VAS is a 0-10 rating scale for pain which is used to gain a subjective report of the intensity of a person's pain. Zero represents "no pain" and ten represents "the most intense pain imaginable". A meaningful change would be plus or minus 3 points.

    Time frame: Session 1 (baseline) and session 15 (day 21)

  4. Change in Barthel Index (BI)

    The BI is an ordinal scale used to measure performance in activities of daily living (ADL). Each performance item is rated on this scale with a given number of points assigned to each level or ranking. It uses ten variables describing ADL and mobility. A higher number is associated with a greater likelihood of being able to live at home with a degree of independence following discharge from hospital.

    Time frame: Session 1 (baseline) and session 15 (day 21)

  5. MiniMental State evaluation (MMSE)

    The MMSE (Folstein et al., 1975), is a 30-point questionnaire that is used extensively in clinical and research settings to measure intellectual efficiency disorder as well as cognitive impairment.

    Time frame: Session 1 (baseline)

Other outcomes

  1. Gait Analysis

    Kinematic and kinetic gait parameters will be calculated from data acquired with a motion capture system (SMART-DX; BTSBioengneering, Italy).

    Time frame: Session 1 (baseline) and session 15 (day 21)

  2. Postural Analysis

    Posturographic parameters will be obtained from the analysis of the center of pressure (COP) trajectories measured by force platforms during standing in both open and closed eyes conditions.

    Time frame: Session 1 (baseline) and session 15 (day 21)

06

Study locations

1 site
  • IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana
    Roma, RM 00166, Italy
07

References and documents

Publications

  • Knoop J, Steultjens MP, van der Leeden M, van der Esch M, Thorstensson CA, Roorda LD, Lems WF, Dekker J. Proprioception in knee osteoarthritis: a narrative review. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2011 Apr;19(4):381-8. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2011.01.003. Epub 2011 Jan 18. PubMed 21251988 ↗
  • Laver K, George S, Thomas S, Deutsch JE, Crotty M. Cochrane review: virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2012 Sep;48(3):523-30. Epub 2012 Jun 20. PubMed 22713539 ↗
  • Fung V, Ho A, Shaffer J, Chung E, Gomez M. Use of Nintendo Wii Fit in the rehabilitation of outpatients following total knee replacement: a preliminary randomised controlled trial. Physiotherapy. 2012 Sep;98(3):183-8. doi: 10.1016/j.physio.2012.04.001. Epub 2012 Jul 10. PubMed 22898573 ↗
  • Lee M, Suh D, Son J, Kim J, Eun SD, Yoon B. Patient perspectives on virtual reality-based rehabilitation after knee surgery: Importance of level of difficulty. J Rehabil Res Dev. 2016;53(2):239-52. doi: 10.1682/JRRD.2014.07.0164. PubMed 27149529 ↗
  • Negus JJ, Cawthorne DP, Chen JS, Scholes CJ, Parker DA, March LM. Patient outcomes using Wii-enhanced rehabilitation after total knee replacement - the TKR-POWER study. Contemp Clin Trials. 2015 Jan;40:47-53. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2014.11.007. Epub 2014 Nov 12. PubMed 25460343 ↗
  • Levinger P, Zeina D, Teshome AK, Skinner E, Begg R, Abbott JH. A real time biofeedback using Kinect and Wii to improve gait for post-total knee replacement rehabilitation: a case study report. Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol. 2016;11(3):251-62. doi: 10.3109/17483107.2015.1080767. Epub 2015 Sep 4. PubMed 26336875 ↗
  • Dieppe P, Basler HD, Chard J, Croft P, Dixon J, Hurley M, Lohmander S, Raspe H. Knee replacement surgery for osteoarthritis: effectiveness, practice variations, indications and possible determinants of utilization. Rheumatology (Oxford). 1999 Jan;38(1):73-83. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/38.1.73. No abstract available. PubMed 10334686 ↗
  • Koralewicz LM, Engh GA. Comparison of proprioception in arthritic and age-matched normal knees. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2000 Nov;82(11):1582-8. doi: 10.2106/00004623-200011000-00011. PubMed 11097448 ↗
  • Pournajaf S, Goffredo M, Pellicciari L, Piscitelli D, Criscuolo S, Le Pera D, Damiani C, Franceschini M. Effect of balance training using virtual reality-based serious games in individuals with total knee replacement: A randomized controlled trial. Ann Phys Rehabil Med. 2022 Nov;65(6):101609. doi: 10.1016/j.rehab.2021.101609. Epub 2022 Sep 29. PubMed 34839056 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03454256
Lead sponsor
IRCCS San Raffaele Roma
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 5, 2018
Start date
Nov 8, 2016
Primary completion
Oct 8, 2019
Completion
Nov 13, 2019
Last update
Apr 10, 2024

Study contacts

Marco Franceschini, MD
study chair · IRCCS Sanraffaele Pisana

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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