The Effectiveness of Using Virtual Reality Systems in Rehabilitation of People with Functional Ankle Instability: A Systematic Review

 Given the high prevalence of functional ankle instability, its primary and secondary costs, and most importantly, the personal suffering of injured people, proposing an effective rehabilitation program is essential. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to review the effectiveness of VR-based interventions in the rehabilitation of patients with ankle instability.

 Articles were searched on the SportDiscus, PubMed, Web of Science, Medline, Scopus, and EMBASE databases without any time limit from the inception to Jun 2021. Selective keywords were virtual reality, ankle instability, and clinical outcomes such as balance, postural control, range of motion, pain, strength, function, and gait function. The Pedro scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the selected articles. The reporting of this systematic review was guided according to the standards of the PRISMA statement.

 After removing duplicate and irrelevant articles, the full text of 10 articles was obtained from the databases, and the required information was extracted. The results of studies used within group analysis indicated that VR-based interventions had a significant effect on balance, postural control, and motor and self-report function of people with functional ankle instability. However, there is no significant difference between the effectiveness of VR-based interventions and traditional physiotherapy in terms of effects on balance, postural control, and self-report performance in people with functional ankle instability.

 Although there is no evidence that virtual reality-based interventions are superior to traditional rehabilitation, the results of the present study suggest that virtual reality-based interventions are at least as effective as traditional exercises for people with ankle instability. However, due to the methodological weaknesses of current studies, more detailed studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of VR-based interventions for patients with ankle instability.