(Press-News.org) Interactive video games, already known to improve motor function in
recovering stroke patients, appear to safely enhance physical therapy
for patients in intensive care units (ICU), new research from Johns
Hopkins suggests.
In a report published online in the Journal of Critical Care,
researchers studied the safety and feasibility of using video games to
complement regular physical therapy in the ICU.
"Patients admitted to our medical intensive care unit are very sick and,
despite early physical therapy, still experience problems with muscle
weakness, balance and coordination as they recover," says study leader
Michelle E. Kho, P.T., Ph.D, assistant professor of Physical Medicine
and Rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins. "We are always looking for creative
ways to improve rehabilitation care for critically ill patients, and our
study suggests that interactive video games may be a helpful addition."
For the study, the Johns Hopkins researchers identified a select group
of 22 critically ill adult patients over a one-year period who received
video games as part of routine physical therapy. These patients were
part of a group of 410 patients who received standard early physical
therapy in the medical ICU during the same time frame from Hopkins'
physical therapists. The patients in the study, mostly males ranging
from 32 to 64 years of age, were admitted to the medical ICU as a result
of health problems, such as respiratory failure, sepsis, and
cardiovascular issues.
These 22 patients participated in 42 physical therapy sessions that
included use of Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit video game consoles. Almost
half of the 20-minute sessions, all provided under the direct
supervision of a physical therapist, included patients who were
mechanically ventilated. The most common video game activities included
boxing, bowling and use of the balance board. The physical therapists
chose these activities primarily to improve patients' stamina and
balance.
"As always, patient safety was a top priority, given that healthy
people playing video games may be injured during routine gaming, but
when properly selected and supervised by experienced ICU physical
therapists, patients enjoyed the challenge of the video games and
welcomed the change from their physical therapy routines," says senior
author, Dale M. Needham, M.D. ,Ph.D., associate professor and medical
director of the Critical Care Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Program
at Johns Hopkins.
Needham added that video game therapy activities are short in duration,
which is ideal for severely deconditioned patients, and very low-cost
compared to most ICU medical equipment. Added to regular physical
therapy, the video games can boost patients' interest in therapy and
motivation to do more therapy. The researchers caution that more
research is needed to determine whether the video games improve
patients' abilities to do the tasks that are the most important to them.
"Our study had limitations because the patients were not randomly
selected, the video game sessions were infrequent and the number of
patients was small," Kho noted. "Our next step is to study what physical
therapy goals best benefit from video games."
INFORMATION:
Other Hopkins researchers in the study included Jennifer M. Zanni, P.T.,
Sc.D. and Abdulla Damluji, MBChB, MPH.
Michelle Kho, P.T., Ph.D., receives funding support from a Fellowship
Award and the Bisby Prize, both from the Canadian Institutes of Health
Research. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research had no influence
on the design of the study; in the collection, analysis and
interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the
decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The video game
console and games were purchased by the Medical Intensive Care Unit at
Johns Hopkins.
Related Websites:
The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/rehab
The Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/pulmonary/
Outcomes after critical Illness and surgery group at Johns Hopkins
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/OACIS
END
"Too busy," and "too complicated." These are the typical excuses one might expect when medical professionals are asked why they fail to use online error-reporting systems designed to improve patient safety and the quality of care. But, Johns Hopkins investigators found instead that the most common reason among radiation oncologists was fear of getting into trouble and embarrassment.
Investigators e-mailed an anonymous survey to physicians, nurses, radiation physicists and other radiation specialists at Johns Hopkins, North Shore- Long Island Jewish Health System in New ...
A team of scientists, led by Johns Hopkins researchers, say they may have found a way to predict how quickly patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) will lose cognitive function by looking at ratios of two fatty compounds in their blood. The finding, they say, could provide useful information to families and caregivers, and might also suggest treatment targets for this heartbreaking and incurable neurodegenerative disorder.
Past research has shown that cognitive function declines at different rates in AD patients, with roughly one-third not declining at all in five years, ...
A new study from the University of Adelaide shows the parents of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are more likely to have some form of cardiovascular disease.
PCOS is a hormonal disorder affecting about 10% of women of reproductive age. It is one of the most common endocrine disorders in women and a leading cause of infertility.
The study shows mothers of women with PCOS are more likely to have any form of cardiovascular disease, and almost twice as likely to have high blood pressure, than mothers of other women.
Fathers of women with PCOS are more than ...
ST. PAUL, Minn. – People who rate their health as poor or fair appear to be significantly more likely to develop dementia later in life, according to a study published in the October 5, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"Having people rate their own health may be a simple tool for doctors to determine a person's risk of dementia, especially for people with no symptoms or memory problems," said study author Christophe Tzourio, MD, PhD, director of the Inserm unit 708 Neuroepidemiology at the University of Bordeaux ...
STANFORD, Calif. -- North American babies who acquire toxoplasmosis infections in the womb show much higher rates of brain and eye damage than European infants with the same infection, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Eighty-four percent of the North American infants studied had serious complications of the parasitic infection, including calcium deposits in the brain, water on the brain and eye disease that caused visual impairment or blindness. By contrast, few European infants had these problems -- for instance, about 17 percent ...
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists call it LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor, but they don't know much about this great-grandparent of all living things. Many believe LUCA was little more than a crude assemblage of molecular parts, a chemical soup out of which evolution gradually constructed more complex forms. Some scientists still debate whether it was even a cell.
New evidence suggests that LUCA was a sophisticated organism after all, with a complex structure recognizable as a cell, researchers report. Their study appears in the journal Biology Direct.
The study ...
(Deerfield, Ill., USA – October 5, 2011) Indoor spraying with the insecticide bendiocarb has dramatically decreased malaria transmission in many parts of Benin, new evidence that insecticides remain a potent weapon for fighting malaria in Africa despite the rapid rise of resistance to an entire class of mosquito-killing compounds, according to a study published today in the October edition of The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Scientists with Benin's Entomologic Research Center in Cotonou evaluated the effects of two applications of bendiocarb in ...
STANFORD, Calif. — Investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a novel protocol that allows kidney-transplant recipients to jettison their indispensable immune-suppressing drugs. The protocol could also spell substantial savings to the health-care system.
The researchers have reported their progress in a letter that will be published Oct. 6 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Eight of the 12 patients discussed in the small study have now been off of immunosuppressant drugs for at least one year, and in some cases for longer than three ...
New research suggests that small "seed" amounts of diseased brain proteins can be taken up by healthy neurons and propagated within them to cause neurodegeneration. The research, published by Cell Press in the October 6 issue of the journal Neuron, sheds light on the mechanisms associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) and provides a model for discovering early intervention therapeutics that can prevent or slow the devastating loss of neurons that underlies PD.
Alpha-synuclein (α-syn) is a brain protein that forms abnormal, neuron-damaging intracellular clumps called ...
Our behavior is often guided by the desire to obtain positive outcomes and avoid negative consequences, and neuroscientists have put a great deal of effort into looking for reward and punishment "centers" in the brain. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the October 6 issue of the journal Neuron reveals that neural signals related to reinforcement and punishment are far more broadly distributed throughout the entire human brain than was previously thought.
Understanding the neural basis of reinforcement and punishment processing is of paramount importance to ...
