Trial reportJournal of advanced nursing2026
Efficacy of Virtual Reality vs. Tablet Games for Pain and Anxiety in Children Undergoing Bone Pins Removal: Randomised Clinical Trial.
Trial report in Journal of advanced nursing, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03680625 (Virtual Reality Compared to Passive Distraction for Pain Management During Orthopedic Procedures in Children), which is not on this map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Virtual Reality Compared to Passive Distraction for Pain Management During Orthopedic Procedures in Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Immersive Virtual Reality for Pediatric Procedural Pain and Anxiety: A Structured Narrative Review and Developmentally Informed Framework for Clinical Matching and AI-Supported Personalization.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Review
- Virtual Reality for Managing Procedural Pain and Distress in Paediatrics: A Scoping Review.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Article
- Entertainment interventions for pediatric fracture patients during cast room procedures: a scoping review.Translational pediatrics · 2026Review
- Perceived Effects of Customized Avatars in a Multiplatform Virtual Environment on Pain and Anxiety in Hospitalized Children in Hemato-Oncology.Global qualitative nursing researchArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimsTo verify the efficacy of virtual reality compared to tablet games for pain and anxiety management in children undergoing percutaneous bone pin and/or suture removal procedures.
designRandomised clinical trial using two parallel groups: (1) virtual reality or (2) tablet game.
methodsThree-center, randomised pragmatic clinical trial, using a parallel design with two groups (experimental group: immersive virtual reality; active comparator: tablet games). Children aged 6-17 requiring percutaneous pins and/or sutures were recruited between 2020 and 2022 from three outpatient orthopaedic clinics in paediatric hospitals. Pain was measured with the Numerical Rating Scale and anxiety with the Child Fear Scale before and immediately after the procedure.
resultsA total of 188 participants were assigned to either the virtual reality group (96 participants) or the tablet group (92 participants). At the first assessment, there was no noticeable difference between the two groups in terms of pain or anxiety levels. However, further analysis revealed that participants aged 13 and older in the virtual reality group experienced significantly lower anxiety.
conclusionVirtual reality was not more efficacious than games on a tablet for pain and anxiety of children undergoing removal of bone pins or sutures. However, virtual reality demonstrated a benefit in reducing anxiety for teenagers, particularly those aged 13-older. IMPLICATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL AND/OR PATIENT CARE: Virtual reality games provide an immersive, non-pharmacological alternative of for anxiety management of teenagers during pins and/or sutures removal. IMPACT: This study showed that a virtual reality game may help reduce anxiety during pins and/or sutures removal procedures in patients aged 13 years and older. REPORTING
methodWe adhered to the CONSORT checklist for reporting results. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: A patient partner reviewed the study design, methods and final manuscript.
trial registrationNCT03680625.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.