VR for Preoperative Anxiety in Children

The Hospital for Sick Children

Status: Completed

Conditions: Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: slideshow; Behavioral: virtual

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03201640

1000056779

Details and patient eligibility

About

All of the tools currently available for preoperative preparation of children either use a third person approach (i.e., use media whereby they watch a video or look at pictures of another child receiving an anesthetic), provide tours at some time previous to the operation date, or are shown the equipment that they will encounter during their anesthetic. No preoperative programme currently allows the child to experience the entire chain of events from leaving the preoperative preparation area (and their parents), walking to the operating area, being initially prepared for and receiving anesthesia and recovering from anesthesia, in real time and from a first person perspective. As such the investigators are carrying out this study to assess whether virtual reality preoperative preparation is effective in reducing anxiety at induction of anesthesia.

Full description

The investigators' goal in this study is to investigate the effects of virtual reality preoperative preparation on anxiety in children at induction of anesthesia. The hypothesis is that utilisation of this novel 1st person immersive preparatory method will lead to an enhanced understanding of what will happen to the child (in addition to what the environment looks and sounds like) when they have their anesthetic. The investigators believe this enhanced understanding and preparation will lead to the reduction in anxiety levels before and during the induction of anesthesia, and will also lead to a reduction in postoperative negative behaviour disorders.

Enrollment: 39 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 to 18 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Patients aged between 6 -18
2. ASA physical status 1-3
3. Admitted for elective surgery (day case and inpatient cases)
4. Cognitively normal

Exclusion criteria

1. ASA physical status 4-5
2. Non-English speaking
3. Significant visual and auditory disorders not allowing them to use the technology
4. Epilepsy
5. Mobility problems that would make using the technology difficult or harmful to them (i.e., reduced movement of neck)
6. Cognitive impairment
7. Postoperative PICU care anticipated

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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39 participants in 2 patient groups

slideshow

Other group

Description:

Participant receives traditional slideshow presentation for preoperative preparation

Treatment:

Behavioral: slideshow

virtual

Other group

Description:

Participant receives virtual reality presentation for preoperative preparation

Treatment:

Behavioral: virtual