Virtual rehabilitation

Abstract

This chapter addresses the current state of the art of virtual rehabilitation by summarizing recent research results that focus on the assessment and remediation of motor impairments using virtual rehabilitation technology. Moreover, strengths and weaknesses of the virtual rehabilitation approach and its technical and clinical implications will be discussed. This overview is an update and extension of a previous virtual rehabilitation chapter with a similar focus. Despite tremendous advancements in virtual reality hardware in the past few years, clinical evidence for the efficacy of virtual rehabilitation methods is still sparse. All recent meta-analyses agree that the potential of virtual reality systems for motor rehabilitation in stroke and traumatic brain injury populations is evident, but that larger clinical trials are needed that address the contribution of individual aspects of virtual rehabilitation systems on different patient populations in acute and chronic stages of neurorehabilitation.