ArticleMedicina (Kaunas, Lithuania)2023
Virtual Reality for Decreasing Procedural Pain during Botulinum Toxin Injection Related to Spasticity Treatment in Adults: A Pilot Study.
Article in Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 0 citations in OpenAlex.
- Virtual reality paired with nitrous oxide for procedural pain in children: a randomized controlled trial.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Impact of pediatric surgery on anxiety in children and their families and coping strategies: a narrative review.Translational pediatrics · 2025Review
- Virtual Reality as a Nonpharmacological Tool for Acute Pain Management: A Scoping Review.Innovations in clinical neuroscienceReview
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesBotulinum toxin injections are commonly used for the treatment of spasticity. However, injection procedures are associated with pain and procedural anxiety. While pharmacological approaches are commonly used to reduce these, innovative technology might be considered as a potential non-pharmacological alternative. Given this context, immersive virtual reality (VR) has shown effectiveness in the management of procedural pain. Our retrospective pilot study aimed to assess the potential added value of virtual reality in the management of pain and anxiety during intramuscular injections of botulinum toxin. MATERIALS AND
methodsSeventeen adult patients receiving botulinum toxin injections were included. A numerical rating scale was used to assess pain and anxiety during the injection procedure. The patients reported the pain experienced during previous injections without VR before injection and the pain experienced in the current procedure with VR after the end of the procedure. The level of satisfaction of VR experience, whether or not they agreed to reuse VR for the subsequent toxin botulinum injection, and whether or not they would recommend VR to other patients were assessed.
resultsThe use of virtual reality led to a decrease of 1.8 pain-related points compared to the procedure without technology. No significant improvement in the level of anxiety was reported. Patients were very satisfied with their VR experiences (7.9 out of 10), and many would agree to reuse VR in their next injection procedure (88%) and to recommend the use of VR in other patients (100%).
conclusionVR was useful for managing procedural pain related to botulinum toxin injection in adults, with a high level of satisfaction reported by the patients. VR should be considered as a valuable alternative to pharmacological approaches to manage procedural pain during botulinum toxin injection in adults.
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