Can virtual reality avoid rejection in lung transplants?

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The C2Care start-up and the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux com Marseille (AP-HM) want to fight against the risks of rejection in lung transplants. The young Toulon shoot specialized in the edition of therapeutic software bets on the preventive use of virtual reality by patients. Clinical trials on 20 patients – drawn from the lung transplant list – will start in early January 2020. "Virtual reality enters a therapeutic phase that can save lives"proclaims Pierre Gadea, director of C2Care, contacted by The Digital Factory.

Managing anxiety to combat the risk of rejection

The post-operative stress, often very strong, plays on the success or not of the operation. "Anxiety will not directly cause rejection of the graft but it will cause an absence of sleep which can cause serious incidents on the smooth progress of the transplant", explains Pierre Gadea.

To find out about the many factors that make waking up complicated, Marseille hospitals surveyed patients. "Among the most anxiety-provoking situations are the many noises that can, for example, come from an empty water infusion. The patient will worry when it is nothing serious", explains the director of the young shoot. Indeed, these" beeps "can worry patients who can not communicate with the care team because they are intubated and tied.

Become familiar with the environment upstream

Concretely, patients who will soon have a lung transplant will have three 45-minute sessions with a hospital psychologist. Via an Oculus helmet, the person will be immersed in a resuscitation room as he will discover it when he wakes up with his machines, his noises … The goal of this therapy is that the patient can understand the functioning of this scene.

By dint of being confronted with this new environment, the patient should gradually get used to it and thus better understand it. This cognitive mechanism is based on theory by habituation. "When you get the brain used to not being in the unknown, it will be better to live the experience"explains Pierre Gadea. The psychologist will also teach the patient ways to regulate his emotions through relaxation techniques that he can apply when he wakes up in resuscitation boxing.

A serious game for sick children

These new therapies are reproducible for all types of medical and surgical procedures. And that's exactly what C2Care plans to do. Pierre Gadea shares at least two projects. The first concerns awake brain operations. They allow the patient to be asked to perform simple tests during the operation such as speaking or counting. This gives indications to the surgeon on his cognitive and motor capacities and thus help him to locate the area of ​​the brain to be treated. However, these operations are traumatic because the patient undergoes trepanning. Virtual reality therapy would allow patients to be better prepared for the act.

The second C2Care project is aimed at children with cancer followed at Gustave-Roussy hospital (Paris). " We would like to create a 'Mario Bros' course' so that they are familiar with the care, especially the rays", projects Pierre Gadea.

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