Immersive virtual reality boosts the effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain
December 23, 2020 - For patients receiving spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for chronic pain, integration with an immersive virtual reality (VR) system - allowing patients to see as well as feel the effects of electrical stimulation on a virtual image of their own body - can enhance the pain-relieving effectiveness of SCS, reports a study in PAIN®, the official publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
The integrated SCS-VR approach improves pain control over SCS alone, with fast-acting and long-lasting effects that may increase with repeated use, according to the new collaborative research by Olaf Blanke, MD, of Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland, Ali Rezai, MD, of West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, and Vibhor Krishna MD, PhD
[Source illustration: Bohdan Skrypnyk/iStock]
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Fever monitoring has developed something of a bad reputation under COVID-19. While having a fever is one of COVID-19’s telltale symptoms, temperature checks capture only a moment in time. Unless someone is stricken with fever, they tell us very little about a person’s state of health. But a new report suggests that body temperature can play a far more useful role in understanding health we’re just using it wrong.
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Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, San Diego, have shown that constant temperature surveillance could be a promising method for detecting and predicting the onset of fever in COVID-19. In a 50-person feasibility study, researchers used the Oura Ring, a finger-worn sleep tracker, to monitor temperatures of participating healthcare workers and adult volunteers.