ReviewCureus2026
Virtual Reality for Pain, Anxiety, and Patient Experience in Awake Urological Procedures: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials.
Review in Cureus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Awake urological procedures, including cystoscopy, transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy (TRUS-Bx), extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, vasectomy, and urodynamic studies, are consistently associated with procedural pain and anxiety, with downstream consequences for surveillance compliance and patient experience. Head-mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a non-pharmacological adjunct, but existing reviews have been narrative or restricted to a single procedure type. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated head-mounted display VR across the full breadth of awake urological procedures. PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched from inception to April 2026. Eligible studies were randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of HMD VR compared with standard care in adults undergoing office-based urological procedures under local anaesthesia. Two reviewers independently performed study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment using the revised Cochrane risk of bias tool (RoB 2). Random-effects meta-analyses used the standardised mean difference (SMD) with Hedges' g. Certainty of evidence was rated using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) framework. Reporting followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 statement. Eleven RCTs encompassing 1,557 participants across eight countries were included. The VR was associated with statistically significant reductions in procedural pain (SMD -0.68, 95% CI -1.25 to -0.11) and anxiety (SMD -1.39, 95% CI -2.64 to -0.14), although both estimates carried substantial heterogeneity (
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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.