Immersive Virtual Environments and Wearable Haptic Devices in Rehabilitation of Children With Neuromotor Impairments
NCT ID: NCT03353623
Last Updated: 2017-11-27
Study Results
The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.
Basic Information
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COMPLETED
NA
8 participants
INTERVENTIONAL
2017-02-13
2017-10-09
Brief Summary
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A sample of 8 participants was randomly divided into 2 groups and they attended one of the two therapeutic approach for 4 weeks before crossing over and inverting the therapy. Between the two interventions, there was a wash out period of 4 weeks.
The investigators assessed motor abilities of the children with validated clinical scales and motion analysis before/after each phase of the study (T0: baseline, T1: after 4 weeks, T2: after 8 weeks, T3: after 16 weeks, and T4: up to 24 weeks).
Detailed Description
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The investigators recruited eight patients, both male and female, 3 children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and 5 children with Developmental Dyspraxia (DD) (mean age = 10,30±2,88 years), who were currently receiving conventional therapy at Unit of Developmental Neurorehabilitation, Maternal and Child Department, Pisa University Hospital, and eight Typically Developing children (TD, mean age = 9,60±2,61 years). All the patients were right-handed and they did not have previous experiences with Virtual Reality (VR) and/or haptic devices, while TD children have previously experienced with commercial video games.
Following recruitment, screening and consent and baseline assessments, participants are randomized to an order of VR-assisted rehabilitation (ISG-Group, Immediate Serious Games, or DSG-Group, Delayed Serious Games). Participants were setup in their first condition and were assessed at the end of the 4 week intervention. Participants were then set up in their second period for 4 weeks, again with assessment occurring at the end of the intervention. Among the two interventions, a wash out period of 4 weeks was inserted and children followed only cognitive therapy with no physical sessions.
The study protocol consisted of a total of 16 sessions with both VR-assisted and conventional rehabilitation (2 sessions per week for 4 weeks for 2 periods) and involved a familiarization and a training phase. The investigators adopted different established clinical scales for children with CP and DD in order to assess patients' abilities during the assessments. The investigators also selected metrics obtained from end-point (hand) kinematic data, including movement speed and accuracy, in order to have quantitative measurements of patients' motor abilities.
Conditions
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Keywords
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Study Design
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RANDOMIZED
CROSSOVER
TREATMENT
SINGLE
Study Groups
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ISG-Group (Immediate Serious Game)
Children in the ISG-Group first participated in the VR-assisted rehabilitation, which consisted in 8 sessions with immersive virtual environment and wearable haptic devices, and were then crossed over and followed during an intended duration of 6 hours of conventional therapy.
Serious Game
Serious Game (SG) refers to the use of immersive virtual environments and wearable haptic devices during the treatment. Two SG were specifically developed to allow a playful training of different, targeted Upper Limb (UL) movement based on typical rehabilitation exercises (reach-to-grasp, linear path tracking, hand orientation). The child interacts directly with a virtual environment through haptic feedback provided to his/her fingertips. In particular, "moneybox game" focused on pincer grasp and reaching tasks with pronation/supination od the hand while "marble labyrinth game" focused on pointing and tracking movements requiring both eye-hand and upper limb inter-joint coordination.
Conventional Therapy
Conventional therapy (CONV) refers to the neurocognitive rehabilitation approach, with the purpose of improving pointing, tracking, reaching and grasping, and pronation/supination of the forearm. The therapeutic sessions were performed with the exception of the visual channel to ensure that the child focused his/her attention on tactile/kinesthetic information to complete the task. In particular, five different tasks have been proposed during the sessions: 1) recognize trajectories; 2) arm proprioception; 3) object manipulation; 4) recognize surfaces; 5) forearm orientation.
DSG-Group (Delayed Serious Game)
Children from DSG-Group were followed during an intended duration of 6 hours of conventional therapy before receiving VR-assisted rehabilitation with immersive virtual environment and wearable haptic devices.
Serious Game
Serious Game (SG) refers to the use of immersive virtual environments and wearable haptic devices during the treatment. Two SG were specifically developed to allow a playful training of different, targeted Upper Limb (UL) movement based on typical rehabilitation exercises (reach-to-grasp, linear path tracking, hand orientation). The child interacts directly with a virtual environment through haptic feedback provided to his/her fingertips. In particular, "moneybox game" focused on pincer grasp and reaching tasks with pronation/supination od the hand while "marble labyrinth game" focused on pointing and tracking movements requiring both eye-hand and upper limb inter-joint coordination.
Conventional Therapy
Conventional therapy (CONV) refers to the neurocognitive rehabilitation approach, with the purpose of improving pointing, tracking, reaching and grasping, and pronation/supination of the forearm. The therapeutic sessions were performed with the exception of the visual channel to ensure that the child focused his/her attention on tactile/kinesthetic information to complete the task. In particular, five different tasks have been proposed during the sessions: 1) recognize trajectories; 2) arm proprioception; 3) object manipulation; 4) recognize surfaces; 5) forearm orientation.
Interventions
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Serious Game
Serious Game (SG) refers to the use of immersive virtual environments and wearable haptic devices during the treatment. Two SG were specifically developed to allow a playful training of different, targeted Upper Limb (UL) movement based on typical rehabilitation exercises (reach-to-grasp, linear path tracking, hand orientation). The child interacts directly with a virtual environment through haptic feedback provided to his/her fingertips. In particular, "moneybox game" focused on pincer grasp and reaching tasks with pronation/supination od the hand while "marble labyrinth game" focused on pointing and tracking movements requiring both eye-hand and upper limb inter-joint coordination.
Conventional Therapy
Conventional therapy (CONV) refers to the neurocognitive rehabilitation approach, with the purpose of improving pointing, tracking, reaching and grasping, and pronation/supination of the forearm. The therapeutic sessions were performed with the exception of the visual channel to ensure that the child focused his/her attention on tactile/kinesthetic information to complete the task. In particular, five different tasks have been proposed during the sessions: 1) recognize trajectories; 2) arm proprioception; 3) object manipulation; 4) recognize surfaces; 5) forearm orientation.
Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria
* a maximum age of 18 years
* a minimum ability to actively grasp an object
* the ability to understand simple instructions
* low to severe impairments of the upper limbs
Exclusion Criteria
* severe deficit in sensory perception of upper limb
* severe visual impairments
* severe cognitive diseases
6 Years
18 Years
ALL
Yes
Sponsors
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Unit of Developmental Neurorehabilitation, Pisa University Hospital
UNKNOWN
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa
OTHER
Responsible Party
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Antonio Frisoli
Full Professor of Robotics and Mechanical Engineering
Principal Investigators
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Ilaria Bortone, PhD
Role: STUDY_CHAIR
PERCRO Laboratory, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, via L. Alamanno 13b, 56010 Ghezzano, Pisa, Italy
Locations
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Unit of Developmental Neurorehabilitation, Maternal and Child Department, Pisa University Hospital
Pisa, PI, Italy
Countries
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References
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Leonardis D, Solazzi M, Bortone I, Frisoli A. A 3-RSR Haptic Wearable Device for Rendering Fingertip Contact Forces. IEEE Trans Haptics. 2017 Jul-Sep;10(3):305-316. doi: 10.1109/TOH.2016.2640291. Epub 2016 Dec 15.
Bortone I, Leonardis D, Solazzi M, Procopio C, Crecchi A, Bonfiglio L, Frisoli A. Integration of serious games and wearable haptic interfaces for Neuro Rehabilitation of children with movement disorders: A feasibility study. IEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot. 2017 Jul;2017:1094-1099. doi: 10.1109/ICORR.2017.8009395.
Leonardis, D., Solazzi, M., Bortone, I., & Frisoli, A. (2015, June). A wearable fingertip haptic device with 3 dof asymmetric 3-rsr kinematics. In World Haptics Conference (WHC), 2015 IEEE (pp. 388-393). IEEE.
Bortone, I., Leonardis, D., Solazzi, M., Procopio, C., Crecchi, A., Briscese, L., ... & Frisoli, A. (2017). Serious Game and Wearable Haptic Devices for Neuro Motor Rehabilitation of Children with Cerebral Palsy. In Converging Clinical and Engineering Research on Neurorehabilitation II (pp. 443-447). Springer International Publishing.
Bortone I, Barsotti M, Leonardis D, Crecchi A, Tozzini A, Bonfiglio L, Frisoli A. Immersive Virtual Environments and Wearable Haptic Devices in rehabilitation of children with neuromotor impairments: a single-blind randomized controlled crossover pilot study. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2020 Oct 28;17(1):144. doi: 10.1186/s12984-020-00771-6.
Other Identifiers
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[SG]-CIV-IT-17-04-019324
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id