A new rehabilitation platform combining virtual reality (VR) and nerve stimulation significantly improved the recovery of arm and hand function after a stroke compared to conventional rehabilitation approaches. Published today in Nature Medicine, results from a small-scale clinical study show early promise for a more effective and accessible rehabilitation approach that can be personalized to each patient’s needs.
Approximately 60% of stroke survivors develop long-term disability affecting their mobility. Even after extensive physiotherapy and occupational therapy, many continue to live with reduced arm and hand function, which severely impacts their ability to perform day to day tasks and live independently.
“Our aim was to go beyond mere movement training,” said Stanisa Raspopovic, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at the Medical University of Vienna and senior author of the study. “After a stroke, patients often have difficulty not only moving the affected limb, but also feeling it and perceiving it correctly. MultiSensy was developed to reconnect movement, sensation and body awareness during rehabilitation.”
The MultiSensy rehabilitation platform combines immersive VR with electrical nerve stimulation. The VR goggles present users with interactive virtual tasks designed to train arm and hand functions such as reaching, grasping, pinching, and forearm rotation. Meanwhile, electrodes on the skin stimulate sensory nerves in real time to make patients feel virtual objects as if they were physically touching them.
The system was tested on a cohort of 34 patients who had suffered a stroke over three months before. Participants were divided into two groups who were treated either with MultiSensy or conventional rehabilitation including physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Both groups completed a total of 12 training sessions over the course of three weeks.
Patients who used the VR system saw a greater recovery of arm and hand movement compared to those in the control group, achieving nearly twice the improvement according to a standard assessment of motor impairment after stroke. In addition, MultiSensy was able to address body awareness and sensory deficits caused by stroke, which are often left aside by conventional rehabilitation strategies.
“After a stroke, some patients struggle to feel touch in their affected hand and may even perceive the arm as distorted in size, shape, or position,” said Valerio Aurucci, PhD, lead author of the study and former graduate student at ETH Zurich. “Participants treated with the new system showed improvements in their sense of touch and in perception of their affected arm.”
Another advantage of the MultiSensy platform is that each task can be adapted to the impairment level of the user, tailoring treatment to their unique needs. The VR system collects movement data during training, providing objective measurements of progression that clinicians can rely on to monitor a patient’s performance and recovery over time.
“The results provide early clinical evidence that immersive virtual reality combined with sensory nerve stimulation can support recovery after stroke, even after months from the event”, said Raspopovic. “The technology is still at the research stage, and larger clinical trials are needed to confirm its benefits. However, the study opens a promising perspective for future personalized and potentially home-based stroke rehabilitation.”
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