Purpose: Hospitalization can be stressful and anxiety-inducing for many pediatric surgical patients and their parents. If further procedures or treatments are required, this often leads to additional pain and anxiety and therefore cumulative stress. Very young patients often find themselves for the first time in an uncomfortable environment that they have never experienced before. To counteract their anxiety and pain during painful procedures, a new user-friendly immersive distraction method using a virtual reality (VR) headset was investigated in a clinical study.

Methods: A total of 34 patients between the ages of 5 and 16 took part in the study and were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. The children in the experimental group were distracted during treatment by 360° videos on VR glasses while the children in the control group received routine care from the staff. The treatments assessed included the insertion of peripheral intravenous catheters, surgical dressing changes and the insertion and removal of transurethral catheters. Anxiety and pain levels were measured using an FPS-R scale and a FLACC scale.

Results: The results show that, on average, the participants in the intervention group reported less anxiety (regression coefficient RC: -0.86 [-2.68; 0.96], p-value: 0.3429) and pain during procedure (RC: -1.17 [-2.99; 0.65], p-value: 0.1996) and after procedure (RC: -0.54 [-1.71; 0.65], p-value: 0.3616) than in the control group. The duration of procedures has been statistically significant reduced in the intervention group by an average of 5.53 (95 %-confidence interval: [-11.02; -0.04], p-value: 0.0486) minutes. Almost all participants stated that they had found the VR experience good and wanted to use the glasses for a future treatment or intervention.

Conclusion: The introduction of VR technology into clinical practice can improve the hospital experience for children and reduce anxiety and pain during painful procedures. VR has been shown to be a useful and effective means of distracting children during painful procedures.

Gerards M, Miller J, Doshi D, Hoyer A, Flöttmann N, Barthlen W. Virtual reality for distraction during painful procedures in pediatric surgery: A randomized clinical trial. J Pediatr Nurs. 2025 Mar 8;82:116-122. doi: 10.1016/j.pedn.2025.03.001. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40058097.