The Effect of Familiarization with Stitching Through Virtual Reality Headset on Children's Pain Intensity and Parents' Satisfaction with Pain Management During Stitching: Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials

Background and

Familiarity with procedures method makes the patient cooperate. Besides, using virtual reality headsets decreases pain through involving patients in a multidimensional space. Stitching causes the child to not cooperate due to the pain occurring during the procedure. Therefore, this study combined these two methods to investigate the effect of familiarization with stitching through virtual reality headset on children's pain intensity and parents' satisfaction during stitching.

The present study was a clinical trial. The statistical population consisted of 60 children aged 5-7 years with a cut in the limb or head. These children were selected by the convenience method and randomly allocated into two groups. Pain related to laceration was measured using Visual Analog Scale in both groups before the intervention. In the intervention group, virtual headset was used 1 to 3 minutes before stitching (playing 1 minute and 30 seconds animation containing how to stitch and getting familiar with the hospital environment). After the procedure, the child's pain intensity was measured again. Parents were asked to complete a parents' satisfaction questionnaire on pain management after stitching. Finally, the data were analyzed using SPSS V16.

The demographic data did not show any significant differences. The results showed a statistically significant difference between the pain intensity of children in the control (8.6±1.67) and intervention (3.97±3.21) groups (P=0.001). Parents' satisfaction (control 48.03±11.76 and intervention 68.83±8.67) with pain management also showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups (P=0.001).

It seems that using virtual reality for the purpose of familiarization reduces the intensity of pain in children during stitching and increases parents' satisfaction. Therefore, it is recommended to use this method as a non-drug, safe, non-invasive, and cheap method.