ArticleBMC nursing2025
The effect of virtual reality on patients' experiences of pain during painful wound care procedure: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Article in BMC nursing, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interventions to reduce pain at dressing change of chronic wounds: a mixed-methods systematic review.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWound care procedures can often cause intense and intolerable pain for patients and negatively affect their quality of life.
objectiveThis study aimed to determine the impact of virtual reality applied in wound care procedures on pain management.
methodsA systematic review and meta-analysis. From online databases, including PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, EBSCO (MEDLINE) and Web of Science. Two independent systematic searches of databases were conducted by two researchers. Two independent systematic searches of databases were conducted by two researchers in April 2025. The search strategy was adapted to bibliographic databases. All relevant studies published until the end of April 2025 were included, with no time restrictions applied to capture the earliest research on VR in wound care. Then, two reviewers independently screened literature, and extracted data. After conducting a quality assessment of the included literature, meta-analysis was performed. The degree of heterogeneity was also indicated by using I2statistic.
resultsThis systematic review and meta-analysis included seven randomized controlled trials. The results of the studies included in the systematic review revealed that VR effectively reduced pain during dressing changes, as reported in most included studies. However, our meta-analysis for pain, based on three studies, revealed substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 86.19%) and did not show a statistically significant overall reduction in pain scores. Similarly, the meta-analysis for anxiety, derived from two studies, showed no heterogeneity (I2 = 0%) and did not yield a statistically significant pooled effect for anxiety reduction.
conclusionVirtual reality shows promise in reducing pain during a wound care procedure. However, large-scale methodologically sound randomized controlled trials are recommended to determine its efficacy in reducing post-procedural pain and anxiety and its broader effect on vital signs. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable. REGISTRATION: www.crd.york.ac.uk CRD420251021751, registered March 31, 2025.
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.