The Association Between Virtual Reality Rehabilitation and Post-Concussion Recovery Timeline

Background and/or Objectives: Virtual reality (VR) could be a potential tool in concussion rehabilitation. Prior studies have explored VR as a way to simulate environments that challenge the vestibular and visual systems in a controlled and safe setting. However, there remains limited data on how VR influences overall concussion recovery timelines, especially when used during formal rehabilitation. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between VR use and concussion recovery duration, helping to clarify whether VR actively aids recovery.

Design: Retrospective cohort study

Setting : Outpatient specialized concussion rehabilitation clinic

Participants : One hundred thirty-five patients who participated in concussion rehabilitation (age: 38.8 ± 18.3 years, age range: 8-79, time between concussion and initial rehabilitation evaluation: 76.8 ± 104.6 days).

Interventions: Participants completed at least one VR rehabilitation session using the Virtualis equipment and program. Each VR session used the Motion VR platform and Bird VR software.

Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measure was concussion recovery, as measured by the number of days between the first rehabilitation evaluation and rehabilitation discharge. The primary predictor variable was the number of VR sessions completed during concussion rehabilitation.

Results: A linear regression demonstrated that the number of VR sessions during concussion rehabilitation could statistically significantly predict concussion recovery time (F(1,133) = 12.76, p< 0.001), and the number of VR sessions accounted for 8.8% of the variability in recovery days.

Conclusions: Each additional VR session completed during concussion rehabilitation was associated with an increase of 11.6 days in recovery time, which suggests that VR may be more detrimental than helpful during concussion recovery. However, the small effect size supports that factors beyond VR use (e.g., symptom burden, rehabilitation timeline) likely influence recovery time. Future research is necessary to further investigate the utility of VR for post-concussion rehabilitation.