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Virtual reality cues for improvement of gait in patients with multiple sclerosis

From the Department of Computer Science (Y.B.) and Multiple Sclerosis Center, Carmel Medical Center and Rappaport Faculty of Medicine & Research Institute (A.M.), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Prof. Yoram Baram, Computer Science Department, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel; e-mail: baram{at}cs.technion.ac.il

Objective: To study the effects of visual cues, provided through a portable visual-feedback virtual reality (VR) apparatus, on the walking abilities of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: On-line (display-on) and residual short-term therapeutic effects on walking speed and stride length were measured in 16 randomly selected patients with gait disturbances predominantly due to cerebellar ataxia.

Results: Patients whose baseline walking speed (BWS) was below the median showed an average on-line improvement of 13.46% in their walking speed, while patients whose BWS was above the median improved their speed by 1.47%. The average short-term residual therapeutic improvement in walking speed was 24.49% in patients with BWS below the median, and 9.09% in patients with BWS above the median. Similar results were obtained for improvements in stride length. These results of improved functions in patients are particularly noteworthy when compared with the lack of change in healthy control subjects.

Conclusions: Patients with multiple sclerosis showed improvement in walking abilities using virtual reality visual-feedback cues.

Additional material related to this article can be found on the Neurology Web site. Go to www.neurology.org and scroll down the Table of Contents for the January 24 issue to find the title link for this article.

Supported in part by the Atkins Medical Research Fund for Gerontology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Received May 5, 2005. Accepted in final form October 7, 2005.

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