VR for Burn Dressing Changes at Home

Mobile Phone Virtual Reality Game for Pediatric Home Burn Dressing Pain Management

This study will evaluate the impact of our smartphone-based Virtual Reality Pain Alleviation Tool (VR-PAT) during the repeated at-home burn dressing changes of children (5-17 years) with a burn injury in comparison with a control group of children with a burn injury who will not use VR-PAT during at-home burn dressing changes. We hypothesize that children using VR-PAT will report less pain during their dressing changes.

Subjects will be randomly assigned to either the VR-PAT intervention group or Control group. Subjects and caregivers in both groups will perform daily dressing changes (as prescribed by their physician) and afterward will answer questions about their pain and any medications used. Subjects and caregivers in the intervention group will answer additional questions about their experience using the VR-PAT, ease of use, and helpfulness. Surveys will be repeated with each dressing changes for one week.

Inclusion Criteria:

• pediatric patients age 5-17 years (inclusive)
• receiving first outpatient dressing change or being discharged from the inpatient burn unit at our institution
• have a dressing that requires daily changes at home for at least one week
• can communicate orally

Exclusion Criteria:

• any wounds that may interfere with study procedures (i.e. face)
• vision, hearing, or cognitive/motor impairments preventing valid administration of study measures
• history of motion sickness, seizure disorder, dizziness, or migraine headaches precipitated by visual auras
• minors in foster care
• suspected child abuse
• unable to communicate in English
• families who do not have access to a smartphone (due to the VR-PAT game requirements)